Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Assessment in the elderly. Preliminary results.

Background: sleep disordered breathing (SDB) may be an important modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment in elderly people. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common SDB in older people. Its prevalence ranges between 13 and 32% in people over 65 yrs old, but despite this OSA is frequently undiagnosed in older population. Aim: to extimate the prevalence of OSA in a population aged 65 and over resident in southern Italy. Methods: we conducted a screening study for OSA from 1 Sept 2016 to 30 Aug 2017 during the Great Age study, a population-based study on neurodegeneration aging, frailty in Castellana Grotte (BA). Only patients aged 65 and over were included; gender and age were recorded for each patient. Screening was conducted using the STOP BANG questionnaire, that is more accurate for detecting mild, moderate, and severe OSA compared with the Berline Questionaire and Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Results: we investigated 259 patients(F=212, M=47). Mean age was 73(±6). Our analysis showed low, intermediate and high risk in 47%, 35% and 18% of patients, respectively. Distribution of risk according to gender or age is reported in Table 1 and 2. Conclusions: 53% of the subjects examined have an intermediate-high risk of OSA. The percentage of low-risk subjects decreases with increasing age. We expect the data to be further strengthened with the balance of the F:M ratio. Correlations between the risk of OSA and other parameters are in progress, starting from neurological ones.