Cross Sectional Study of the Community Self-Reported Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) and Awareness in Thessaly, Greece

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-reported risk of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in the municipality of Thessaly, Greece, and the level of awareness of both the disease and its diagnosis. Inhabitants of Thessaly (254 total; 84 men and 170 women) were studied by means of questionnaires via a telephone-randomized survey. This comprised: (a) the Berlin questionnaire for evaluation of OSAS risk; (b) the evaluation of daytime sleepiness by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale; and (c) demographic and anthropometric data. The percentage of participants at high risk for OSA was 26.77%, and the percentage of people who were at high risk of excessive daytime sleepiness was 10.63%. High risk for OSAS was found to be 3.94%. No significant differences were found between high- and low-risk OSAS participants associated with age, smoking and severity of smoking. Regarding the knowledge of the community about OSAS, the majority of the sample was aware of the entity (64.17%), while fewer had knowledge about the diagnosis (18.50%) and polysomnography (24.80%). The high risk of OSA prevalence and the low awareness of the diagnosis of OSA highlights the need for the development of health promotion programs aiming at increasing the disease awareness in the general population in order to address OSA more effectively.