Survey of parental awareness of obstructive sleep apnea among children in Guangdong province, South China

Childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is underdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to assess the awareness level of OSA among parents in the general population of Guangdong province of South China. This descriptive epidemiological study was conducted from July to November 2019 using an anonymous questionnaire that evaluated the knowledge of OSA-related symptoms and complications. Exclusion criteria included age under 18 years, refusal to fill out the questionnaire, and a linguistic barrier. A total of 1123 respondents participated in the survey. Among them, 530 (47.2%) respondents were aware of childhood OSA. The most common source of information about childhood OSA was the internet (49.9%). On multivariate analysis, the respondents obtained higher scores if they were mothers (B: -0.105, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.153,-0.057), lived in an urban area (B: -0.077, 95% CI: -0.125,-0.28), and knew about childhood OSA previously (B: -0.55, 95% CI:-0.598,-0.502). Parents demonstrated limited awareness of OSA complications. Innovative educational campaigns must be organized to inform medical practitioners and the general public about this disease and raise awareness about its complications. The effectiveness of the ongoing health education campaigns to increase awareness should be monitored by examining the temporal trends in public knowledge of childhood sleep apnea.