Awareness of issues related to sleep disordered breathing amongst practicing physicians.
BACKGROUND
Most of the sleep related breathing disorders currently in India are both under diagnosed and under treated. The exact prevalence of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in our country is not clearly known and this is partly due to lack of awareness amongst physicians and lack of formal epidemiological data from Indian subcontinent. Several international agencies have emphasised the urgent need for medical training at all levels in sleep medicine, so as to include an exposure to the broader aspects of sleep medicine.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the knowledge of practicing chest physicians on the issues related to sleep disordered breathing in the local set-up.


METHODS
A standardised questionnaire with strong face validity was utilised for this purpose to interview 65 physicians at their work place.


RESULTS
The overall awareness about sleep disordered breathing amongst the practicing physicians in Hyderabad, Secunderabad and the neighbouring district of Warangal was poor. There was no association between professsional qualifications and level of awareness. Furthermore, the awareness was found to be similarly low both amongst young and middle aged physicians and this was statistically significant (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The overall awareness about sleep disordered breathing amongst practicing physicians in and around Hyderabad is rather poor.
Vigg
Ajit
A
Department of Chest Diseases, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India. drajitvigg@yahoo.com
Vigg
Avanti
A
Vigg
Arul
A
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015272:Pulmonary Medicine; D012890:Sleep; D020182:Sleep Apnea, Central; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires