title: [Prevalence of mouth breathing in children from an elementary school].
abstract: The objective of this article is to identify the prevalence of mouth breathing in children from an elementary school. 496 questionnaires were answered by 1st and 4th grade children's parents or sponsors in order to identify mouth-breathing. There were questions about habits, sleeping, behavior, eating, personal care and breathing. Mann-Whitney and the Chi-square tests were used to compare the variables between mouth-breathing and nose-breathing among the groups. To measure the exposure effect of the explanatory variables on mouth breathing, the test of logistic regression was used and its magnitude was calculated through Odds Ratio. The statistical significance was set at 5%, and the rate of returned questionnaires was 84.5%. The prevalence of the mouthbreathing over this population was 56.8%. The average age was 7 years old (6-9). There was no significant statistical difference between genders, considering 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The final model of logistic regression identified the variables dribble, sleeps well (negative association) and snores as factors that predict the occurrence of the mouth-breathing. The prevalence of mouthbreathing was similar to related in the literature. The variables dribble, sleeps well (negative association) and snores may be factors that predict the occurrence of mouth-breathing.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Pesquisa em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Norte do Paraná, Londrina, PR, 86041-140. josianefelcar@sercomtel.com.br
authors.forename: Josiane Marques
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Felcar
authors.forename: Izabele Rafael
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Bueno
authors.forename: Ana Carolina Silva
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Massan
authors.forename: Roberta Pereira
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Torezan
authors.forename: Jefferson Rosa
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cardoso
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009058:Mouth Breathing / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires