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Determinants of altered quality of life in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders

¹ Sleep Laboratory, Division of Neurophysiology, Dept of Psychiatry, and ² Division of Pneumonology, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland

CORRESPONDENCE: E. Sforza, Unité de Neurophysiologie, Laboratoire de sommeil, Département de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Belle Idée, 2 Chemin du Petit Bel Air, Ch 1225 Chêne Bourg, Genève, Switzerland. Fax: 41 223055343. E-mail: Emilia.Sforza@hcuge.ch

Keywords: daytime sleepiness, quality of life, sleep continuity, sleep-related breathing disorders

Received: September 21, 2002
Accepted November 21, 2002

Recent reports have suggested that altered quality of life and well-being are reported by patients with sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). There seems to be no data available in the literature on factors underlying these behavioural consequences. In this study, health-related quality of life (HRQL) scores were examined in SRBD patients in order to establish which factors are implicated in these disturbances.

The study group consisted of 130 patients: 49 snorers and 81 patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. The Medical Outcome Survey Short Form-36 questionnaire was administered the morning after the sleep study and scores for the eight dimension scores were obtained. Patient's data were compared to normative sex- and age-matched data.

In comparison with normal values, scores for all HRQL dimensions were decreased in SRBD patients, with a greater impact on subscores for "vitality", "physical role", "social functioning", "mental health" and "role emotional" dimensions. While impairment in physical function was mostly influenced by sleep stage and obesity, subjective daytime sleepiness mainly affected the other dimensions.

The authors conclude that the altered health-related quality of life of sleep-related breathing disorder patients is a multifactorial phenomenon depending on the interaction of sleep stages, daytime sleepiness and obesity, with no significant contribution of sleep fragmentation, hypoxaemia and apnoea recurrence.

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