Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research



The Syndrome of Sleep Apnea in the Elderly Suffering from COPD and Live in the County of Attica, Greece

Marianna Diomidous, Nikas Marios, Dimitrios Zikos, Gourgoulianis Konstantinos, Daniil Zoe, Zoe Mpizopoulou, Xatzoglou Xrysi, Roupa Zoe.




Abstract

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome are two diseases, which often coexist in one person. The sleep apnea is often caused by an interruption to breath when sleeping, due to an obstruction of the upper airway during inhalation, causing chronic snoring, morning headaches, increased body weight, blood pressure and sleepiness during the day. Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the extend of this problem among a large group of elderly people living in the Attica Basin. Material and Methods: Material of the study was 500 people aged 70 and above years old, including 274 men and 226 women. Data collection was facilitated with the use of an anonymous questionnaire with the purpose to identify patients with apnea, after a personal interview with the researcher. Data analysis was performed with the use of the statistical package SPSS 17. Results: Based on their responses to the questionnaires, it was found that 98.0% of the participants have abnormal sleepiness during the day. The 35.4% of them show no apnea, while 36.0% of the sample suffer from mild sleep apnea. It is important though, the fact that about one out of three seniors, 28.6%, shows sleep apnea in a high risk level. Conclusions: COPD is a complex disease that occurs in a large proportion of the elderly. Emphasis should be given on early diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea syndrome, in order to improve the quality of the elderly life.

Key words: COPD, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Daily Sleepiness, elderly






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.