title: Estimation of the clinically diagnosed proportion of sleep apnea syndrome in middle-aged men and women.
abstract: The proportion of sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in the general adult population that goes undiagnosed was estimated from a sample of 4,925 employed adults. Questionnaire data on doctor-diagnosed sleep apnea were followed up to ascertain the prevalence of diagnosed sleep apnea. In-laboratory polysomnography on a subset of 1,090 participants was used to estimate screen-detected sleep apnea. In this population, without obvious barriers to health care for sleep disorders, we estimate that 93% of women and 82% of men with moderate to severe SAS have not been clinically diagnosed. These findings provide a baseline for assessing health care resource needs for sleep apnea.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53705, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finn
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology