Research presented this week at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, confirmed there is a high probability of OSA in nonobese, middle-aged patients.

Overall, the study found 54% of 5,426 nonobese study participants were confirmed to have OSA. The researchers found that OSA in nonobese patients was most prevalent in middle-aged men with larger neck sizes. The prevalence of mild or moderate to severe OSA was equal, with 50.4% of cases categorized as mild OSA and 49.6% categorized as moderate to severe OSA.

Lead author Teimur Yeligulashvili, PhD, clinical supervisor at SleepTech, Wayne, NJ, said that his team was surprised to find that no significant differences were found in Epworth Sleepiness Scale results and neck size between nonobese patients with and without OSA.

“More than 50% of nonobese OSA patients had mild OSA, suggesting that in-lab polysomnography may be more accurate in assessing people in this demographic, as opposed to portable monitoring systems,” said Yeligulashvili in a press announcement.

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