Half of women may have OSA

[Sloop]

don't shoot the messenger


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/ ... A420120907

[cherylgrrl]

This just floors me. What amazing statistics! I thought I had a really obscure condition, now I read that 75% of women my age have it?

Among women aged 20-44, one quarter had sleep apnea, compared to 56 percent of women aged 45-54 and 75 percent of women aged 55-70.

Who is helping them find the therapy they need???

[ems]

Among women aged 20-44, one quarter had sleep apnea, compared to 56 percent of women aged 45-54 and 75 percent of women aged 55-70.

Who is helping them find the therapy they need???

I didn't even know what sleep apnea was... I heard of it and that was about it. My doctor was the one who thought I might have SA and suggested I have a sleep study. The rest is history.

[MidnightOwl]

This just floors me. What amazing statistics! I thought I had a really obscure condition, now I read that 75% of women my age have it?

Among women aged 20-44, one quarter had sleep apnea, compared to 56 percent of women aged 45-54 and 75 percent of women aged 55-70.

Who is helping them find the therapy they need???

Read the article again. They counted ahi of 5. Never mind that they don't give details of how they got their sample. It then goes on to talk about the health consequences of apnea but doesn't mention those have been studied for higher ahis. We don't in fact know whether or not these people need any treatment.

Many of the women in the study represent mild cases of sleep apnea.

"How important is the mild sleep apnea, we don't know," said Dr. Karl Franklin, the lead author of the study and a professor at Umea University in Sweden.

[chunkyfrog]

I hope a few thousand doctors can read.

[brucifer]

I also had a problem with the sample, so I did some investigating and found that one of the authors of the article, Carl Sahlin, published the original study in 2009 in SLEEP APNEA AND SLEEP: Diagnostic Aspects. A PDF file of Sahlin's publication is available free online. The publication combines data from four studies. Study #4 is the one that was presented in the OP's article. A little bit more background is provided on the sample, but not enough in my opinion. For example, the mean BMI of the subjects was 25 which is on the plump side. Still though, just stating that they had a sample of 400 subjects out of a population of 10,000 leaves me to wonder what population was under consideration and how the sample for the study was selected. If the population were comprised of women who had sleep issues, and the sample was randomly selected from that population, then the sample isn't really representative of all women, or for that matter, all Swedish women. Again, I would like to know more about the sample before I swallow the findings hook, line, and sinker.

[Janknitz]

Regardless of the quality of the data, this bears noting simply because doctors have this picture in their heads of the "typical OSA patient" and that "typical OSA patient" is male. So many women are ignored by their primary care physicians when they complain of symptoms.

How many of us have heard things like "of course you're tired, you're doing too much."? Yes, we are, but that doesn't mean that OSA should not be considered.

[Wonderbeastlett]

In my sleep study it showed an ahi of 6.4! So, I am one of the young women who have mild OSA. Again, I'm sure many on here have read my story about fighting with my sleep center because they said my number's were too low for me to have OSA.

What bothers me about this study is that although some of these women had ahi of 5, which is the minimum, it doesn't mean they don't have OSA. My ahi was 6.4, very low compared to others but my stage 4 sleep and REM tested at 0%. I never entered the deepest stage of sleep! As far as my test results go there's nothing that I can see that is causing this to happen, besides the OSA's. PLM's were 12, again low, and I had no CA's or hyponeas. I had 3 doctors look at my study and they did agree I have OSA.

There are so many other part's of our sleep that they are not or might not be accounting for. Ahi is not everything when it comes to OSA or sleep in general!

[dragon672]

My AHI was 8. But I had more instances of RERA. the DME called me since she had serviced one of the ladies that I work with and said since your AHI was over 5 insurance said you have apnea. When I went back to my PCP later the report suggested surgery or an oral device. But I do very well with the cpap machine. Though I wish I had looked online and maybe tried to buy the machine outright after what I've found out here and the letter I got in the mail. But its done now and can't be changed. I do fit the profile of a OSA patient. Well except for the male part. I'm fat, with a narrow neck. But I don't snore; but I have fatigue and all blood work is normail now.

[kteague]

In my sleep study it showed an ahi of 6.4! So, I am one of the young women who have mild OSA. Again, I'm sure many on here have read my story about fighting with my sleep center because they said my number's were too low for me to have OSA.

What bothers me about this study is that although some of these women had ahi of 5, which is the minimum, it doesn't mean they don't have OSA. My ahi was 6.4, very low compared to others but my stage 4 sleep and REM tested at 0%. I never entered the deepest stage of sleep! As far as my test results go there's nothing that I can see that is causing this to happen, besides the OSA's. PLM's were 12, again low, and I had no CA's or hyponeas. I had 3 doctors look at my study and they did agree I have OSA.

There are so many other part's of our sleep that they are not or might not be accounting for. Ahi is not everything when it comes to OSA or sleep in general!

Is your PLM's of 12 a count or an index?

[Wonderbeastlett]

In my sleep study it showed an ahi of 6.4! So, I am one of the young women who have mild OSA. Again, I'm sure many on here have read my story about fighting with my sleep center because they said my number's were too low for me to have OSA.

What bothers me about this study is that although some of these women had ahi of 5, which is the minimum, it doesn't mean they don't have OSA. My ahi was 6.4, very low compared to others but my stage 4 sleep and REM tested at 0%. I never entered the deepest stage of sleep! As far as my test results go there's nothing that I can see that is causing this to happen, besides the OSA's. PLM's were 12, again low, and I had no CA's or hyponeas. I had 3 doctors look at my study and they did agree I have OSA.

There are so many other part's of our sleep that they are not or might not be accounting for. Ahi is not everything when it comes to OSA or sleep in general!

Is your PLM's of 12 a count or an index?

From what I understand on the results I had 12 PLM's the whole night. Which I slept a total of 7 hours during my sleep study. I figured that to be pretty low simply from other people's results and stories.