Symptom prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome in health-care providers in central Sivas

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is the most common sleep disorder that can lead to serious complications. Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for the diagnosis of OSAHS. Unfortunately, PSG studies are expensive, time-consuming, requiring special team and equipment. Therefore, it is possible to determine the cases likely to have OSAHS requiring at least PSG by type A studies. There isn't enough data about the prevalence of OSAHS in Turkey. The aim of this study was to estimate the symptom prevalence of OSAHS in health-care providers in central Sivas. The questionnaire asking demographic features, additional diseases, habits, the symptoms related with OSAHS was performed in total of 1202 health care providers. We also performed Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) to determine excessive daytime sleepiness. Snoring was detected in 267 participants. Snoring rates were 38% and 10.9% in men and in women, respectively. The rate of witnessed sleep apnea in all cases was 4.4% (n=53). Witnessed sleep apnea was reported by 42 of men (8.4%) and 11 of women (1.6%). A total of 338 participants had excessive daytime sleepiness. There was a significant relation between three major symptoms of OSAHS and excessive sleepiness while driving. All three major symptoms were detected in 22 cases (1.8%), of which 21 were males. This study suggested that OSAHS symptom prevalence is quite high helth-care provides in our region and, therefore expanded usage of PSG studies is required.