Diana M Rosenthal, Donaldson F Conserve, Dodley Severe, Michaele A Gedeon, Ferdinand Zizi, Georges Casimir, Samy I McFarlane, Girardin Jean-Louis
{"title":"Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Cardiovascular Disease Risks among Haitian Medical Students.","authors":"Diana M Rosenthal, Donaldson F Conserve, Dodley Severe, Michaele A Gedeon, Ferdinand Zizi, Georges Casimir, Samy I McFarlane, Girardin Jean-Louis","doi":"10.4172/2167-0277.1000264","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep apnea is a prevalent sleep disorder that disproportionately affects blacks and has been previously studied among Caribbean-born blacks in Brooklyn, New York, but there has been negligible research in the Caribbean, specifically Haiti, and developing countries on this pressing health issue. A total of 373 medical students (mean age=20.6 years ± 2.3 years) from a medical school in Haiti participated in this study. Participants were administered a questionnaire assessing their sleep health and cardiovascular outcomes. The rate of sleep apnea symptoms was: snoring (13.2%), excessive daytime sleepiness (73.7%), and difficulty maintaining sleep (25.3%). Many reported falling asleep while watching television (68.2%) or while driving (7.8%). Based on logistic regression analysis, reported nocturnal breathing pauses was the most important predictor of the likelihood of reporting a history of cardiac disease (14.96; 95% CI=1.27-76.07). Findings suggest that more aggressive effort should be made to increase screening of sleep apnea among Haitians, thereby increasing the likelihood for early detection and treatment to reduce sleep-related risk of cardiovascular disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":73946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of sleep disorders & therapy","volume":"6 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.4172/2167-0277.1000264","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of sleep disorders & therapy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0277.1000264","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2017/4/25 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Sleep apnea is a prevalent sleep disorder that disproportionately affects blacks and has been previously studied among Caribbean-born blacks in Brooklyn, New York, but there has been negligible research in the Caribbean, specifically Haiti, and developing countries on this pressing health issue. A total of 373 medical students (mean age=20.6 years ± 2.3 years) from a medical school in Haiti participated in this study. Participants were administered a questionnaire assessing their sleep health and cardiovascular outcomes. The rate of sleep apnea symptoms was: snoring (13.2%), excessive daytime sleepiness (73.7%), and difficulty maintaining sleep (25.3%). Many reported falling asleep while watching television (68.2%) or while driving (7.8%). Based on logistic regression analysis, reported nocturnal breathing pauses was the most important predictor of the likelihood of reporting a history of cardiac disease (14.96; 95% CI=1.27-76.07). Findings suggest that more aggressive effort should be made to increase screening of sleep apnea among Haitians, thereby increasing the likelihood for early detection and treatment to reduce sleep-related risk of cardiovascular disease.