Poll: How Old Are CPAP Users?

i'm 36 & proud of it. I was 34 going on 35 when i started using my cpap machine. What difference it has made in my life. I thank God for it Daily

i am another one in the 40's, i turned 47 a week ago- funny thing is despite a heap of medical problems and being in a wheelchair thanks to losing a leg and having MS, when it comes to age i still really feel llike i am in my 20's! when i stop and think about my real age (not something i do very often, i tend to ignore birthdays) i start to feel old and wonder where the last 20 years or so have gone!

it is intersting to see the the majority of cpap users are in the 40's and then it trails of for the both younger and older age groups- i can understand why there are less younger folk but i am surprised that the number of users drops in the older age groups.

given that the symptoms of sleep apnea are rather vague, loud snoring bothering a partner is the most common reason for people to start thinking they may have a problem- i suspect that there are many people out there who do not even suspect they may have sleep apnea and then others who may just not think that it is something that can have serious health effects. mine was picked up incidently, i spent a lot of time in hospital in the past year and the nurse noticed i was having lots of long periods of apnea, no snoring, just not breathing! when they checked oxygen sats they were down in the low 50 % realm!

i had been complaing of severe fatigue for ages and it was always put down as part of my MS and it is true that fatigue is a common MS symptom, i also have had severe reflux and i often woke with really bad headaches- i felt my head had been kicked by a mule! the headaches have stopped and the reflux has improved out of sight! the fatigue is still an issue but it has improved so it seems some of it was sleep apnea and some of it was sleep apnea. perhaps people should be screened for sleep apnea the same as some other diseases- there could be a lot more hoseheads around i suspect

Kebsa,

I think the lack of people in their up years is partly due to the resistance to change. Someone on this forum metioned that they had asked thier parent to get checked and was answered with "you and your new fangled ideas" I think there is a large slice of the older population that beleive apnea is a normal part of aging and doesn't need to be treated. My sisters and I believe my father has suffered most of our lives - his stance is "I'm not ill, I don't need to be tested." I think as our generation "grows up" with more knowlege of apnea you will see the number of users in the later years grow.

BTW I heard Admiral Hopper speak once, I believe she was in her 80's then (still in uniform too). Absolutly amazing woman - and sharp as a tack in her advanced years.

bickhart814 wrote:OKay I just made it 40's. Under the 50 mark. Turn 49 next week.

I voted 50's, I am actually 49 but getting use to saying fi..fif...fifty ~

I think you'll find the older people are less computer savvy as a group, and less apt to join internet forums.

O.

ozij wrote:I think you'll find the older people are less computer savvy as a group, and less apt to join internet forums.

O.

Maybe that is changing

My crusty old father-in-law who has resisted computers for years & years (we loaned him everything from a PC to a Mac) phoned me yesterday to ask if he bought a PC could he google with it. I said "you need to get an ISP first, someone like Telstra" - he says "I don't have anything with Telstra, will Optus do ?" - "absolutely" says I. He is 88. I think peer pressure & competitiveness (the same force that molds our kids) is at play

My wife deals with people who belong to the Australian Ikebana (Sogetsu) assoc - she has one 95 yo who emails as if it was always the way to communicate

DSM

ozij wrote:I think you'll find the older people are less computer savvy as a group, and less apt to join internet forums.

O.

They may start out less savy... but that quickly changes once they get started.

In web hosting I see older customers on a regular basis. In fact one of our support guys is in his 70's. But, there are usually two sides here... one group complains about the whole thing being TOO complicated and simply give up -while- there is another group who are like kids in a candy store for the first time having discovered a brand new world and are eager to push forward.

my mom (65) only learned how to email after I moved to the US. Now she calls and continues to ask computer questions (thinks that I know all of her answers... when I don't!)

I'm 48 and I'm one of the people who didn't think i snored or anything along the lines of sleep apnea ,until i realized i haven't had a good night sleep in god knows how long ..........boy was i wrong !

This poll is not really accurate if you are trying to get an idea of the average age of cpap users. It is a poll of the ages of the members in this group. People in their 70's and up generally are not on computers. What do others think of this?

garyland wrote:This poll is not really accurate if you are trying to get an idea of the average age of cpap users. It is a poll of the ages of the members in this group. People in their 70's and up generally are not on computers. What do others think of this?

While you are correct that the sample population may be biased towards the PC literate, it does appear to be a fairly normal distribution with a central tendency of about 50 years. I would guess that it does represent an average age of CPAP users to be somewhere between the mid 40's and mid 50's (close enough for an amature poll). That's what I think about this.

This poll just made me feel young for the first time in YEARS! I have 8 1/2 yrs before I hit the 40 mark. I don't want to think of that. Nothing wrong with being 40 or older I just don't want to rush it.

I chose 30's because I am 35 now, but I was only 22 when I was diagnosed and first started using a CPAP.

dsm wrote:
Add to that list 'Amazing Grace' (Rear Admiral Grace Hopper) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
IIRC was still working for the navy well into her 80s - I think she led the team that defined & developed the COBOL language.

People like her are my inspiration - if we can still be working at 80 then I think it fair to say we know our lives will have been well lived.
(mind you, with govts, banks & superannuation funds constantly loosing our money, working to age 80 may be a necessity).

DSM

I love the Grace Hopper reference. She was my hero back when I was a COBOL programmer. A guy in my department even had her picture framed in his cube. Her military background comes out in the COBOL terms 'Sections' and 'Divisions'.

Yes I am old (57). Some of the kids I work with have never seen a mainframe screen.

Mark