(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Your childhood environment may determine whether you will snore when you are an adult.

A new report from Sweden shows childhood risk factors such as having pets, early respiratory or ear infections and growing up in a large family can all play a role on adult snoring.

Researchers asked more than 16,000 randomly selected people from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia about their childhood and their snoring habits. Eighteen percent of them said they had habitual snoring, which is defined as loud and disturbing snoring at least three nights a week.
 

The study found being hospitalized for a respiratory infection before the age of two, having recurrent ear infections as a child, growing up in a large family or being exposed to a dog at home as a newborn were each related to snoring later in life. “These factors may enhance inflammatory processes and thereby alter upper airway anatomy early in life, causing an increased susceptibility for adult snoring,” stated the authors.

Research has also shown snoring makes a person more at risk for early death and cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks or strokes.

More research about the environment during childhood could help find a way to prevent snoring, the authors concluded.

SOURCE: Respiratory Research, published online August 21, 2008