Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in Asian adults: a systematic review of the literature
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in Western countries, but data on its prevalence in Asia is scarce. This review found limited studies estimating OSA burden in Asian communities.
Area Of Science
- Sleep Medicine
- Epidemiology
Background
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects 2% of women and 4% of men in Western communities.
- Data on OSA prevalence in Asia, the most populous continent, is systematically lacking.
Purpose Of The Study
- To systematically review and synthesize available data on the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Asian populations.
- To identify factors associated with OSA and highlight data gaps in Asian communities.
Main Methods
- Searched PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar for articles from 1993-2012.
- Included studies with sleep monitoring (≥100 participants) or questionnaires (≥300 participants) for OSA diagnosis/risk assessment.
- Excluded duplicate publications, central sleep apnea studies, hospital-based studies, and those in specific patient cohorts.
Main Results
- Analyzed 24 articles covering 47,957 subjects, with OSA prevalence ranging from 3.7% to 97.3%.
- Identified male gender, older age, higher BMI, increased neck circumference, hypertension, smoking, snoring, and daytime sleepiness as associated factors.
- Observed significant variability in prevalence rates attributed to sample size, population differences, and pre-test probability.
Conclusions
- This systematic review underscores a significant lack of prevalence data for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Asian populations.
- Existing studies offer only approximate estimates of the OSA burden in select Asian communities, necessitating further research.