Prevalence of self-reported clinically diagnosed sleep apnea according to obesity status in men and women: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2006

Objective. To estimate the prevalence of self-reported clinically diagnosed sleep apnea (diagnosed sleep apnea) according to body mass index (BMI, measure of total obesity) and waist circumference (measure of abdominal obesity) in US adults. Methods. Data from a representative sample of 4309 US adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2005-2006 were analyzed. Log-linear regression analyses with a robust variance estimator were performed to estimate the prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results. The overall crude and age-adjusted prevalence estimates of diagnosed sleep apnea were 4.7% (95% CI = 4.0%-5.5%) and 4.5% (95% CI = 3.9%-5.2%) in adults. Age-adjusted prevalence in men (6.1%, 95% CI = 5.0%-7.3%) was higher than that in women (3.1%, 95% CI = 2.1%-4.0%; P<0.01). Age-adjusted prevalence was higher for persons with total obesity (i.e., BMI >= 30 kg/m(2)) (12.1% vs. 3.0% in men, P<0.01; 7.0% vs. 0.7% in women, P<0.01) or abdominal obesity (10.9% vs. 1.9% in men, P<0.01: 4.6% vs. 0.6% in women, P<0.01) than that for those without total obesity (BMI <30 kg/m(2)) or without abdominal obesity. Conclusions. These results from a nationally representative sample suggest that diagnosed sleep apnea is highly prevalent among adults with obesity in the general population, especially among men. Published by Elsevier Inc.