Prevalence and Risk Factors of Obstructive Sleep Apnea among Patients Attending Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Odisha, India: A Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

Background: Although obstructive sleep apnea is the most common sleep-disordered breathing, there are fewer studies estimating the prevalence of OSA and its risk factors in urban and rural populations in Odisha. Objective: To estimate the prevalence and risk factors of obstructive sleep apnea in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Odisha, India. Method: It is an observational, retrospective study that was conducted in a sleep study lab for a duration of 4 years (January 2016 to December 2019) by the Department of Physiology and Department of Pulmonology of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Odisha. Patients were first screened for high-risk sleep apnea disorder by the Berlin questionnaire, and then they underwent a level 1 sleep study. Results: Total study patients were 1423, of whom 718 and 705 were from urban and rural areas. The mean age of urban and rural patients was 50.81±12.5 years and 51.63±15.3 years, respectively. The prevalence of OSA in urban areas by AHI criteria was 5.9%, and in rural areas it was 4.9%. The mean AHI of urban OSA patients was 37.86±23.46 and that of rural patients was 16.96±13.8. Conclusion: The prevalence of OSA was higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Both BMI and NC were higher for urban patients than for rural patients. The risk factors were mainly diabetes mellitus and hypertension.