Purpose The purpose of this umbrella review was to assess available systematic reviews and meta-analyses reporting on the use of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire as a screening tool for identifying sleep related breathing disorders in children, with subsequent referral from dentists to physicians.

Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted with electronic databases to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses reporting on the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire as a screening tool for pediatric sleep related breathing disorders. Eligible reviews were systematically selected and were assessed qualitatively with the AMSTAR 2 tool and quantitatively with meta-analyses methods.

Results A total of 129 articles for possible inclusion were identified, and five studies were selected for quantitative analysis. Of these five studies, the overall AMSTAR 2 quality assessment showed two with moderate and three with low quality ratings. The five studies showed point-estimate mean values for prevalence, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, positive predictive value, negative predictive value as, respectively, respectively, 50.58, 74.97, 49.68, 58.16, 62.24 percent, and the diagnostic odds ratio as 6.94 percent for the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire tool.

Conclusions Dentists should adhere to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry guidelines and know that there is low to moderate evidence to support the utilization of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire as a sufficiently accurate screening tool for the diagnosis of sleep related breathing disorders in children, followed by an appropriate referral to a physician for comprehensive assessment and management.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was funded by the Hansjorg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone Hospitals, New York, NY.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The IRB for the Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Hospitals waived ethical approval for this work.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.