Prevalence of Symptoms and Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea among Individuals Attending Primary Health Care Centers in Baghdad

number: 
2552
إنجليزية
Degree: 
Imprint: 
Medicine
Author: 
Thaer Easa Murad
Supervisor: 
Dr. Enas T. Abdul-Karim
year: 
2010

Abstract:

The prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has not been assessed in Iraq. The current study is an attempt to assess the prevalence of individuals who were at risk of OSA in the primary health care centers in Baghdad city using Berlin questionnaire. It also attempts to assess the relation of some demographic variables with the risk of OSA. A cross-sectional study was conducted through taking a sample from individuals (who are 30 years and more) attending the primary health care centers regardless of the reason for the visit. Data collection was carried out during the period from the start of February to the end of May 2010 with an average of 4-5 working hours per day; 5 days a week, a total of six primary health care centers were included in the study from both Al-Karkh and Al-Resafa health directorate, they were selected according to convenience. A total of 900 individuals (500 were males and 400 were females) with their age of 30 years and above were interviewed directly for the occurrence of risk factors for OSA by using a questionnaire form which included two parts, the first part contained some sociodemographic information (occupation and education), measurements (neck length and neck circumference) and the second part included the Berlin questionnaire. Based on the data collected and defined criteria, individuals were stratified into high risk and low risk according to responses. From the Nine hundred subjects who were surveyed in this study with their mean age of 42.16±9.27 years, the results showed a high prevalence for symptoms of OSA in the primary health care settings, (39.56%) were at a high risk for OSA. (40.2%) of the males and (38.8%) of the females graded as a high risk. Snoring was present in (62.1%) and breathing pauses more than once per week noticed in (5%), the occurrence of persistent tiredness after sleep was reported by (39.9%) and that of day time tiredness reported by (32.1%). Obesity is markedly associated with the high risk, (43.11%) of the total sample size had a BMI more than 30kg/m², self report of hypertension was (21.3%) in the studied sample. Obstructive Sleep Apnea risk has been found to increase with increasing age. And it was associated significantly with the occupations of the individuals. Factors found not to be associated significantly with the high risk for OSA were education and the studied site. OSA risk also has been found to increase with increasing neck circumference and to decrease with increasing its length. Finally, the current study shows the importance of further studies to be done in this field, in addition to that, increasing the awareness level about the OSA, and a well coordinated efforts that need to be done by health care providers will help in providing a preventive and curative activities regarding this health problem and to decrease of the significant financial, reduced quality of life, and disability burden of it.