Abstract
The aim of the study was to assess the severity of sleep disordered breathing in elderly patients with a history of daytime sleepiness and snoring.
Methods. We studied retrospectively 177 subjects over 70 years old, who were referred for a polysomnography study. Anthropometric characteristics, smoking habit, alcohol consumption were reported. Daily sleepiness was estimated subjectively by their perception and objectively by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS).
Results. The patients were 145 men and 32 women aged 74.5±3.1y , with a BMI of 31.1±8.4kg/m2. Former smokers were 10.2% and social alcohol consumers 15.8%. The ESS was 9±5.5 while the 40.1% of them reported daytime sleepiness.
In the 95.5% of patients an AHI>5/h was found. Mild SAS (AHI 5-15/h) was found in 13% , moderate (AHI 15-30/h) in 18.6% and severe (AHI>30/h) in 63.3 % of patients. Patients with severe SAS were more obese and a significant difference in BMI was observed between them and moderate SAS patients (BMI 32.9±5.2kg/m2 and 29.7±4.6 kg/m2 respectively, p <0.05). SE was 87.2±12.6% and a significant difference was found between severe and moderate SAS patients in S1 duration (p<0.05, 95% CI= 0.25 to 25.2).
For all patients there was a positive correlation between AHI and BMI (r=0.400 p<0.01) but no correlation was observed with ESS or other characteristics.
Conclusion. Severe SAS was common in the elderly population referred for sleep study despite the mild symptoms. Obesity was found as a predictor positively correlated with the severity of the SAS.
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