SLEEP APNEA IN AMERICA:
AN EXAMPLE
THE UNITED STATES POPULATION PREVELANCE FOR OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA HAS RECENTLY BEEN ESTABLISHED. THIS ALLOWS A CONFIDENT ESTIMATE OF THE PROBLEM IN OUR NATION. THESE ESTIMATES ARE BASED ON THE US. 1990 CENSUS. THESE ARE:
- 158,366,485 adults (age 25 and over) in the United States.
- 10,293,822 men and women in the U. S. with untreated, undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (severity level: 15 or more stopped breathing episodes per hour).
- 25,130,470 men and women in the U. S. with untreated, undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (if mild sleep apnea is included).
- Approximately 1% of all obstructive sleep apnea patients are receiving treatment at the present time.
HEART DISEASE AND OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA:
- The 10.3 million individuals with obstructive sleep apnea at the moderate to severe level are 4.5 times as likely to have coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and angina as are those without sleep apnea.
- 23% of the morbidity of these heart diseases are associated with sleep apnea and could possibly be eliminated if the sleep apnea were eliminated.
- This amounts to about 41,351 new cases of heart disease each year that can be attributed to sleep apnea.
COST OF TREATING HEART DISEASE VS. SLEEP APNEA:
- If someone has chest pain and has a successful angioplasty, the hospital stay and various tests could cost about $30,000.
- If the angioplasty is not successful and myocardial infarction ensues, the costs rise way beyond this to $100,000 or more per patient.
- Diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea costs between $1,000-2,000 at the present time.
- Depending on the heart disease outcome, identifying and treating the aforementioned 41,351 new patients could save between 1.4 and more than 47 billion dollars annually.
SLEEP APNEA AND SAFETY:
- In addition, various studies have reported that moderate to severe untreated sleep apnea patients have between 4-10 times as many motor vehicle accidents as the general population.
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