Generic and specific quality‐of‐life measures in Taiwanese adults with sleep‐disordered breathing

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the quality-of-life status of Taiwanese adult patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective, quality-of-life survey in a tertiary referral sleep center on 94 consecutive adult SDB patients. Patients were evaluated with polysomnogram, Medical Outcome Study SF-36 Health Survey, Snore Outcome Survey (SOS), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). RESULTS: SDB patients have significantly lower scores in all 8 SF-36 subscales (P < 0.05) than do normative Taiwan adult population. Apnea patients have lower SOS (34.5 +/- 7.5 vs 40.1 +/- 10.3, P = 0.005) and higher ESS scores than do simple snorers (8.8 +/- 5.1 vs 11.7 +/- 5.2, P = 0.03). Patients with a higher degree of sleepiness show worse performance in all dimensions of their general health status (P values 0.0005 to 0.01). Deep sleep (stage 3 + 4) is predictive of SF-36 role: physical (beta = 1.63, P = 0.04), bodily pain (beta = 1.22, P = 0.01), vitality (beta = 1.05, P = 0.01), subscales scores (adjusted R(2) 0.005 to 0.1). CONCLUSION: SDB has considerable impact on a patient's global health status. SIGNIFICANCE: Daytime sleepiness, rather than apnea, is a major quality-of-life determinant. EBM RATING: B-2b.