Children who are overweight and wet the bed at night may have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), researchers report.

Both being overweight and wetting the bed are associated with the nighttime breathing disorder, they found. However, overweight and bedwetting are not associated with each other.

In a “case-control” study, Dr. Joseph G. Barone, of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues performed overnight sleep studies in 149 children between the ages of 5 and 15 with OSA, and 139 matched control children.

They combined that data with information from medical records, including age, gender, height, weight, frequency of bedwetting, history of snoring, diabetes, nasal allergies, and/or enlarged tonsils.

According to Barone and colleagues, there was a significant association between both bedwetting and overweight and OSA.

Bedwetting raised the likelihood of OSA more than fivefold and being overweight raised the likelihood of OSA more than fourfold. However, their associations are independent of each other, the researchers note.

Barone’s team suggests that doctors consider OSA in overweight children who wet the bed, especially when they display other symptoms of OSA or fail to respond to standard bedwetting treatment programs.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, July 2009.