I came across this interesting article in the Medical journal of Australia. The researchers undertook a retrospective observational study of sleep studies that were conducted over a 20 year period from 1987 to 2007.
The demographic,anthropometry and sleep disorder severity of 14 648 patients who had diagnostic sleep studies were analysed. There was only one result that did not increase during this period which was the medium age of the patient. This remained constant at 51 years of age.
Median body weight increased from 89 kg to 99 kg for men (11%) and from 73 kg to 85 kg for women (16%). The proportion of subjects who were morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40) increased from 3% in 1987 to 16% in 2007. Median AHI progressively increased from 1992–1995 to 2004–2007 (from 6.5 events/h to 14.3 events/h. This indicates an increase in disease severity. Over the same period, for every unit increase in BMI, AHI increased by 5.5 events/h for men and by 2.8 events/h for women! About 80% of the observed variance in AHI over this period was attributable to variance in BMI.
The researchers here concluded the findings are consistent with the premise that worsening severity in sleep-disordered breathing is primarily attributable to increasing obesity.
With there seeming being no end in sight to the obesity epidemic and projections indicating that rates of overweight and obesity in Australia will continue to increase, with nearly two-thirds of the adult population estimated to fit (pardon the pun) in these categories by 2019. Thus continued increases in body weight in those referred for a PSG is likely to correspond to increases in AHI.
Jessica
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