Comprometimento da função executiva em crianças com transtornos respiratórios do sono

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate cognitive function in children with symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and to compare with a control group (CG). Method. We evaluated children from 6-10 years of age from public elementary schools. Children with SDB symptoms were selected by means of a screening questionnaire about sleep disorders in children. We evaluated cognitive functions with WISC-III and Bender Gestalt test (BG) and compared by age and sex. Results. We studied 16 children with symptoms of SDB and 19 children without any sleep disorder (CG). We found lower scores of Object Assembly in SDB group (p=0.04) and in 6-8 years of age SDB group (p=0.04) compared to CG. In BG, the SDB group showed a higher proportion of errors (p=0.02) and for boys with SDB (p=0.04) compared to CG. Conclusion. Children with SDB symptoms showed dysfunction in visuospatial perception, organization, planning, and spatial construction processes demonstrated in lower performance of Object Assembly sub-test of Wisc-III and the higher number of errors in BG test.