Reported February 4, 2009

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- For older men who have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), disease severity may be less important to daytime functioning than the actual amount of sleep they get.

According to researchers from the University of California in San Francisco who studied more than 2,800 men with the condition, the severity of OSA no longer mattered much after they took total sleep times into consideration.

"This study showed that in a community-dwelling group of older men, the severity of OSA was not associated with daytime sleepiness, sleep symptoms, or sleep-related quality of life, after controlling for sleep duration," study author Dr. Eric J. Kezirian was quoted as saying.

The finding, continues Dr. Kezirian, suggests OSA may be different in older men than it is in young and middle-aged men, who are often affected by behavioral and health-related effects of the condition that do improve with treatment. He believes a better understanding of OSA in older people could help doctors prescribe more effective therapies for this patient population.

OSA occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep, causing a collapse of the soft tissue in the back of the throat and a subsequent closing off of the airway. People with the condition tend to snore loudly, and because they don't get a good nights sleep, are often sleepy during the day.

SOURCE: SLEEP, published online February 1, 2009

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