Prevalence of OSA? Report Symptoms? Screening? Etc?

[jnk]

I just saw this. (Sorry if it was already mentioned by someone else.) How's this for a scary state of affairs in 2011?:

"More than 90% of adult patients visiting a PCC [Primary Care Clinician] on any given day are experiencing sleep-related symptoms. Based on their Berlin Questionnaire scores, more than one third are at high risk of having sleep apnea. However, most patients have not discussed their sleep-related symptoms with their PCC, and fewer than one third have sleep-related symptoms documented in their medical records. Very few PCCs routinely screen for OSA, and, despite using billing records, problem lists, clinician and staff recall, and prospective logs enhanced by waiting room posters, PCCs were generally unable to identify 25 patients with OSA in their practices."-- http://www.jabfm.com/cgi/content/full/24/2/138

[beckah]

Rather scary to think that a large percentage of people are driving cars with possible untreated apnea and their doctor's are not recognizing the symptoms.

[avi123]

Link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21383212

From:

the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.


I have found this report done in Spain in 2001:

Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 163, Number 3, March 2001, 685-689


Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea and Related Clinical Features in a Population-based Sample of Subjects Aged 30 to 70 Yr
JOAQUIN DURÁN, SANTIAGO ESNAOLA, RAMÓN RUBIO, and ÁNGELES IZTUETA

Sleep Unit, Service of Pneumology, Hospital Txagorritxu, Servicio Vasco de SaludOsakidetza, José Achótegui s/n, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Research Unit, Department of Health, Basque Government, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; and Basque Institute of Statistics, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

The prevalence and related clinical features of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea (OSAH) in the general population were estimated in a two-phase cross-sectional study. The first phase, completed by 2,148 subjects (76.9%), included a home survey, blood pressure, and a portable respiratory recording, whereas in the second, subjects with suspected OSAH (n = 442) and a subgroup of those with normal results (n = 305) were invited to undergo polysomnography (555 accepted). Habitual snoring was found in 35% of the population and breathing pauses in 6%. Both features occurred more frequently in men, showed a trend to increase with age, and were significantly associated with OSAH. Daytime hypersomnolence occurred in 18% of the subjects and was not associated with OSAH. An apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 10 was found in 19% of men and 15% of women. The prevalence of OSAH (AHI 5) increased with age in both sexes, with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.2 for each 10-yr increase. AHI was associated with hypertension after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, neck circumference, alcohol use, and smoking habit. This study adds evidence for a link between OSAH and hypertension.

If I add all those marked percetages it does come close to 90%.

jnk, have you changed your artistic avatar?

[AndyCelt]

90%? That is an incredibly high number! I have a tough time believing it.

[cowlypso]

I can buy it. They aren't talking about people who have actual sleep disorders, just people who are "experience sleep-related symptoms."

In Gallup Poll surveys, 56% of the adult population reports that drowsiness in the daytime is a problem.

Here at Stanford, we have studied samples of undergraduates, nurses, and medical students. We found that 80 percent were dangerously sleep deprived.

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/sleepless.html

So if you start with a baseline of 56% of the population reporting problematic daytime drowsiness, then add on the number of people who snore, suffer from occassional insomnia, talk in their sleep, etc. You can see where they could get close to 90%.

It could be a little high, but it depends on how they asked the questions. There's a big difference between, "In the past month, have you had any problems falling asleep for one or more nights?" and "In the past month, have you had any problems falling asleep for at least 3 nights per week?" They might have cast a very wide net, and therefore caught a lot of fish.