Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a clinical disorder that significantly affects both mental and physical health. The high OSA risk from past studies in Greece leads to the necessity of more studies in other regions of the country. The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-reported screening-estimated high risk for OSA in the regions of Crete and the Peloponnese, as well as the awareness of the population about the syndrome. A telephone survey was conducted and 520 people agreed to participate. All the participants answered three questionnaires: (a) the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) (b) the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) questionnaire and (c) a questionnaire with 3 questions about population awareness about the sleep apnea syndrome. We found that 22.9% (CI95%: 19 to 26) of the participants were at high risk for OSA according to BQ, while 2.3% (CI95% 1 to 4) were at high risk for daytime sleepiness according to ESS. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, age (OR 1.026, 95% CI 1.007–1.043, p=0.007) and BMI (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.20–1.36, p<0.001) were independently associated with high screening-estimated OSA risk. Regarding awareness, 78.5% (CI95%: 70 to 80) had heard of OSA, but only 42.1% (CI95%: 37 to 46) knew about its diagnosis and 40% (CI95%: 35 to 44) had heard about the sleep study. Remarkably low levels of EDS were detected, due to a very low fraction of the participants being at high risk on ESS. Awareness regarding the diagnosis of OSA reveals that there is room for health promotion programs since nearly one in four participants was found at high risk for OSA.
Georgiou et al. (Wed,) studied this question.