Relationship between obstructive sleep Apnea Syndrome and Anthropometric Measures

Anthropometric measures characterized by body mass index and waist and neck circumferences, are considered strong predictors of sleep disorders. Thus, the objective of this research was to evaluate the relationship between anthropometric data and sleep disorder in adults and elderly individuals. The research was carried out with patients attending at a Cardiology Clinic in a city in the interior of the center-west of São Paulo. In addition to personal identification data, anthropometric measures of weight, height, waist (CC) and neck circumferences (NC) and body mass index (BMI) were calculated. The occurrence of sleep disturbance was assessed under the aspect of the risk of occurrence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using the STOP-Bang questionnaire. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Marília - Unimar. Adult and elderly patients (n=197) participated in the study, 47% of them male. The mean age of participants was 59.52 ± 13.41 years. With regard to the risk of OSA, 50% of the participants presented intermediate risk, whereas 22% and 28% were classified as low and high risk, respectively, and such risk was significantly related to the anthropometric measures. The Mean Confidence Interval (95%) indicated that BMI, CC and NC values greater than 26.3 kg / m2, 90.4 cm and 26.3 cm, respectively, carry a risk of OSA. In conclusion, in view of the results found, more research is needed to improve the understanding of the determinants of sleep disorders in order to prevent or improve the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.