Influence of Gender, Obesity and Neck Circumference on Sleep-Disordered Breathing in A Sleep Referral Center

Background: The main subgroup of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) includes obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) which can be diagnosed by means of polysomnography (PSG). The goal of this study is to investigate the gender difference for obesity and increased neck circumference that are accepted as major clinical risk factors for OSA in a hospital based population in Turkey. Methods: Two hundred and seven consecutive patients referred to a regional sleep laboratory for investigation of SDB were included into this retrospective study. Full-night PSG results, neck circumference (NC), body mass index (BMI) were evaluated. Females and males were compared with respect to clinical and PSG findings. Correlation of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) to these parameters was also assessed. Finally multiple comparisons for NC and BMI at different levels of OSAS severity were made in both genders separately. Results: A total of 207 individuals as 150 males and 57 females were included in the study. Eighty seven % of males was defined as having OSAS and 65% of females were defined as having OSAS. The difference between mean measurement values of age, AHI, BMI and NC in females and males with OSAS group was statistically significant (p<0, 05). Age and BMI of females were higher than males. Conclusion: There was statistically significant positive correlation between AHI values and both BMI and NC values in our study. However, we found that both BMI and NC values were not influential for foreseeing AHI values in both genders.