Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Primary Health Care Settings

Zainah N. Alqahtani, Manar A. Alghusn, Asem M.Z. Alrowaili, Fatimah A. A. Alrasheedi, Amjad N. Aldughmi, Eyad A. Bohassan, Hanouf T. Alotaibi, Nada M. H. Alsharif, Hana T. Alnahdi, Bader A. Alshgari

Abstract

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) despite being the most common type of sleep disorder, may present a myriad of clinical features, ranging from simple fatigue and lack of concentration to per-sonality changes and heart diseases. The association between the genetic, physiological built, so-cial status, and behaviour plays the major role in disease risk factors diagnosis and management plans. The most often used treatment method of OSA is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) aimed at monitoring respiratory effort and Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) measuring the number of apnea and hypopnea events per hour of sleep or the Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI). Objective: The focus of this paper is providing a review on obstructive sleep apnea, different treatment ap-proaches and the recent perspectives with regard to family physicians’ enrolment in management and modulation of pain in OSA patients. Methodology: PubMed database was used for articles selection using the keywords obstructive sleep apnea, its evaluation, management, and diagnosis. Conclusion: In summary, family doctors and primary care providers play a major role in controlling OSA and are involved in dealing with CPAP, AHI measurement and RDI. Obstructive sleep apnea re-quires a high cost which may further contribute to late detection, complications deterioration, and increasing in the drop of follow-ups. Increasing awareness of the primary care providers especial-ly family physicians would help to avoid such outcomes. OSA remains a common condition that requires attention, identification, and more directed research.


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