Effects of an Oral-Pharyngeal Motor Training Programme on Children with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome in Hong Kong: A Retrospective Pilot Study.
S Y Cheng, S H W Kwong, W M Pang and 1 others
PMID 30186074WHAT IT FOUND
Children's face and mouth function scores improved after the training.
Tongue endurance did not improve clearly, and the tongue strength result is unclear because the text and table disagree.
Key findings
01Mean NOT-S total score fell from 5.29 to 3.14, and the paper reports this as significant.
02Mean tongue endurance rose from 6.43 seconds to 8.71 seconds, but the paper reports no significant difference.
03Mean tongue strength rose from 38.00 kPa to 48.29 kPa, but the text reports p = 0.18 while the table reports p = 0.018.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only seven children completed follow-up, so the results are very small and could reflect chance or selection. There was no control group and no random allocation, so change cannot be compared with usual care or time. The study did not report post-training sleep apnea severity, so it does not show that OSAS itself improved. The training included individual exercises, a home programme and a daily time log, and the paper does not separate their contributions. The text and table disagree on the tongue strength p value, so that result needs checking.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report conflicts of interest or funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the training reduces sleep apnea. The study did not report post-training sleep apnea severity, and the training was paired with a home programme and daily time log, so the effect of any single component cannot be separated.