Document Type
Article
Department
Pulmonary and Critical Care
Abstract
To assess the knowledge of general physicians about the diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a self-administered questionnaire, containing 15 questions, was distributed to 160 doctors attending a pulmonary CME program in March 2002. After 15 minutes of response time, the questionnaires were collected. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS (Version 10.0) software. One hundred and twenty (75%) questionnaires were returned. Only 41% of responders had ever read an article about OSA and 36% had suspected it at least once in their practice. The majority (61-77%) of responders were aware of the common symptoms of OSA, but 55% did not recognize its association with hypertension. A significant number of doctors were not aware that OSA could occur in non-obese individuals (33%), women (42%) and children (39%). Only 25% of responders recognized that a history and blood tests were insufficient to make a reliable diagnosis of OSA. Half of the responders were aware of CPAP therapy for OSA, whereas 18% would have prescribed sedatives to treat sleep disturbances in OSA.
Publication (Name of Journal)
The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health
Recommended Citation
Hussain, S. F.,
Zahid, S.,
Haqqee, R.,
Khan, J. A.
(2003). General physicians' perspective of sleep apnea from a developing country. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 34(2), 420-423.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_med_pulm_critcare/95