Childhood pets may make adults snorers

New research into why people snore has found that the roots of the problem possibly go back to a person's childhood.

Researchers from Sweden say a predisposition to adult snoring can be established very early in life and childhood risk factors, including exposure to animals, early respiratory or ear infections and growing up in a large family, may be significant.

Dr. Karl A. Franklin from University Hospital Umea, in Sweden, along with a team of Nordic researchers questioned more than sixteen thousand randomly selected people, aged 25-54 years, from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia about their childhood and their snoring habits.

The researchers found that 'habitual snoring', defined as loud and disturbing snoring at least three nights a week, was reported by 18% of the respondents.

The team also found that being hospitalised for a respiratory infection before the age of two years, suffering from recurrent ear infections as a child, growing up in a large family and being exposed to a dog at home as a newborn, were all independently related to snoring in later life.

The authors suspect these factors possibly enhance the inflammatory processes and in so doing alter the upper airway anatomy early in life, making it more likely that an adult snores.

Dr. Franklin says apart from the obvious problem of sleep deprivation for snorers and those unlucky enough to share a room with them, research has also shown that people who snore have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and early death.

The authors say adult snoring may be partly established early in life and having had severe airway infections or recurrent otitis in childhood, being exposed to a dog as a newborn and growing up in a large family are environmental factors associated factors.

The research is published in the peer-reviewed medical journal: Respiratory Research.