Prevalence and regional distribution of obstructive sleep apnea in Canada: Analysis from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common chronic condition that is often undiagnosed or diagnosed after many years of symptoms and has an impact on quality of life and several health factors. We estimated the Canadian national prevalence of OSA using a validated questionnaire and physical measurements in participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Methods: The method used individual risk estimation based upon the validated STOP-BANG scale developed for OSA. This stratified population sample spans Canada to provide regional estimates.

Results: In this sample of adults aged 45 to 85 years old, the overall prevalence in 2015 of combined moderate and severe OSA in the 51,337 participants was 28.1% (95% confidence intervals, 27.8‒28.4). The regional prevalence varied statistically between Atlantic Canada and Western Canada (p < 0.001), although clinically the variations were limited. The provincial prevalence for moderate and severe OSA ranged from 27.5% (New Brunswick and British Columbia) to 29.1% (Manitoba). Body mass index (BMI) was the dominant determinant of the variance between provinces (β = 0.33, p < 0.001). Only 1.2% of participants had a clinical diagnosis of OSA.

Conclusion: The great majority (92.9%) of the participants at high risk of OSA were unrecognized and had no clinical diagnosis of OSA.