CORRELATION BETWEEN SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC RISK FACTORS AND SELF-REPORTED APNEA

Introduction Apnea, pauses in breathing, is a chronic and rising condition in the US and is itself a risk factor for various conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. This study aims to analyze the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dataset to see if certain socio-demographic risk factors contribute to the prevalence of apnea. Methods From 2015 to 2018 (using two consecutive cycles), a secondary dataset from NHANES was obtained. All 11,759 community dwelling individuals 16 years and older who responded to the sleep disorder questionnaire in the above survey were considered as study subjects. Questions were asked in the home by trained interviewers regarding sleep trouble including if they recalled episodes where they stopped breathing during sleep. In this study, we sorted the data to see the mean chance of “snort or stop breathing” amongst various categories such as gender, age, ethnicity, marital status, education, smoking history, alcohol consumption, income, physical activity, and obesity. Results The following socio-demographics were identified as having a higher association with apnea (p< 0.0001); male gender, ages 41 – 50, smokers, and obesity. Unusually, those with higher physical activity self-reported more frequent episodes of stop breathing (p< 0.00001). No significant association was noted for stop breathing events when looking at income, educational level, Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics, frequent alcohol consumption and health insurance. Conclusion These results confirm some of the established risk factors for apnea such as male sex, obesity and age. Oddly, those with higher self-reported physical activity had higher stop breathing events. Self-reported responses in the NHANES data could be associated with recall bias and treated as one of the current study limitations. Of note, there appears to not be an economic factor in terms of income or health insurance in the incidence of stop breathing events. Further awareness of these risk factors and knowing which sociodemographic groups have higher incidences of apnea can help with primary prevention of serious health outcomes. Support (if any)