Chest
Clinical InvestigationsSleep and BreathingPrevalence of Symptoms and Risk of Sleep Apnea in Primary Care
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The survey was conducted over a 2-year period (from 1997 to 1999) in 40 offices and clinics. Local Sleep in Primary Care Study Group members with expertise in pulmonary and sleep medicine identified one to two offices or clinics where a physician had practiced adult general medicine for ≥ 4 years (range, 4 to 12 years) and had handled 2,000 to 4,000 patient visits per year. These local experts explained the aim and procedures to the physicians and their staffs. Questionnaires were distributed
Results
Of the 8,000 distributed questionnaires, 6,223 forms (78%) were entered for analysis. The response rate varied among sites, as follows: 3 of 26 US sites, 40 to 50%; 2 of 14 European sites, 48% and 54%; all remaining sites, 70 to 98% (data available on request). The elimination of sites with a response rate of < 50% did not significantly alter the results and so were left in the final analysis. The major reason for a low response rate was a failure to distribute/return copies. The return rate
Discussion
This is the first large data set providing information collected by a standardized protocol on snoring, sleepiness, and other features associated with sleep apnea across many primary care sites. The results confirmed a widespread distribution of patients with a surprisingly high rate of reported frequent sleepiness and drowsy driving, behaviors that pose individual and societal risks. Approximately one third of patients reported symptoms and risk factors with a high likelihood for finding sleep
Appendix
The other members of the Sleep in Primary Care International Study Group are as follows: Jose Alvarez Sala, Madrid, Spain; Cherryl Carlucci, Stuart, FL; Martin Cohn, Naples, FL; Michael Coppola, Springfield, MA; Eugene C. Fletcher, Louisville, KY; James Mooney, Ashland, OH; Rainer Morawa, Kitzingen, Germany; Annette Neumann, Leipzig, Germany; Wolfgang Pirsig, Ulm, Germany; James O’Brien, Milton, MA; and Peter Werner, Wilmette, IL.
The authors thank these members for acting as tutors for the
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the primary care physicians for their participation in the study. We acknowledge Ed Schuck, Alpha One Foundation, Wayzata, MN, for his continuous support to the Sleep in Primary Care International Study Group since 1995. We also thank Mansour Mustafa, MD, and Susan Redline, MD, MPH, for providing advice and internal review of the manuscript.
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Cited by (0)
This research was supported in part by the Veterans Affairs Medical Service and by a Sleep Academic Award (HL97015). National Sleep Technologies Inc, Arnold, MD, provided logistic support in the Washington DC area, and 3M Inc, Minneapolis, MN, and 3M Medica GmbH, Neuss, Germany, provided an unrestricted grant to print the various forms of the Berlin questionnaire. The Berlin Questionnaire is held as a US copyright by iONSLEEP LLC (Shaker Heights, OH) and may be used for academic and research purposes without fee or license.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (e-mail:[email protected]).
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A list of other members of the Sleep in Primary Care International Study Group is located in the Appendix.