LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Obstructive sleep apnoea and obesity To the Editor—We read with interest the article by Ng et al1 in the February 2004 issue of the Hong Kong Medical Journal. We concur with the authors ’ view that obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and obesity present a double challenge to all practising paediatricians and family doctors alike. To provide adequate resources to tackle the problem, the mag-nitude of the problem needs to be quantified in terms of OSA prevalence among local obese children, and it is inap-propriate to use overseas data for this purpose. We have recently published results of a case-control study that aimed to determine whether local obese children have an increased risk of OSA development.2 Forty-six obese children with a weight of more than 120 % of the ideal weight for height and a mean age of 10.8 years (standard deviation