A Regional and Nationwide Perspective on the Relationship between Sleep Disordered Breathing and Academic Performance in New Zealand Children

Objectives The main aims of this thesis were to: (i) investigate the concurrent associations between sleep disordered breathing (SDB), neurobehavioural, and academic performance at 8 years, (ii) determine the impact of SDB trajectories from 3-to-8 years on academic performance outcomes at 8 years and, (ii) establish the prevalence and correlates of SDB and poor school performance in a Nationwide sample of 6-to-10 year children. Methods A sample of 170 local Dunedin (New Zealand) children were involved in a longitudinal study. From ages 3-to-8 years, SDB was assessed through parent-reported history of symptoms, and physical examination of features related to SDB. Children’s neurocognitive, and behavioural functioning and academic performance were measured using researcher-administered standardised tests, and parent- and teacher- ratings. A second sample of community-wide New Zealand parents were recruited to complete a survey assessing primary school-aged (n=1607, mean age 8.2 years) children’s SDB symptoms, alongside their academic, health, behaviour and familial-related demographic information. Results Analyses found negative relationships between SDB and numeracy, oral reading retell, and listening retell and comprehension ( =3.86 to -0.05, p=0.046 to 0.011), with results also suggesting that pathways from SDB to poorer school performance were indirect, and mediated through children’s cognitive-linguistic skills (e.g. learning problems and functional communication problems). A child’s SDB status at age 3-years predicted academic outcomes at age 8 for oral reading and retell skills, listening retell skills, and applying numeracy skills, in word problems (all p