[Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in bus drivers: clinical and polysomnographic study]. / Sindrome delle apnee ostruttive nel sonno in guidatori di autobus: uno studio clinico e polisonnografico.

A Questionnaire on sleep and vigilance disorders has been developed by the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine to help the occupational health physicians in screening for sleep disorders. Aim of this study was to compare the Questionnaire with standardized questionnaires for sleepiness and sleep apnea and with a polysomnographic evaluation. Four hundred sixty-three (463#) commercial bus drivers (454M, 9F; mean age +/- S.D. 41.6 +/- 8.1 yrs; mean body mass index 26.2 +/- 3.6 kg/m2) underwent clinical evaluation that included the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine Questionnaire on sleep and vigilance disorders and two standardized questionnaires (Berlin Questionnaire and Epworth Sleepiness Scale). According to the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine Questionnaire on sleep and vigilance disorders 40 subjects presented an high risk for sleep disturbance and in 28 subject the questionnaires were concordant. Preliminary results (16 patients) showed an high rate of concordance between questionnaire and PSG. These data strongly suggest that sleep disorders and symptoms, that are frequent in a population of professional bus drivers, should be better evaluated during occupational health visit.

Sleep disturbances in elderly subjects: an epidemiological survey in an Italian district.

OBJECTIVES: Disturbed sleep is common in elderly people and has been related to comorbidities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sleep problems and their relationship with chronic disease in an elderly population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The whole population of subjects aged more than 65 years, in the municipality of Vecchiano, Pisa was considered as eligible and underwent a clinical interview and a questionnaire about insomnia, sleepiness, snoring and sleep apnea. A model of logistic regression was applied to the data. RESULTS: The participation rate was 60.3% (1427 subjects). Insomnia was observed in 44.2% of our population, while sleepiness in 31.3%, snoring in 47.2% and sleep apnea in 9.0%. The most common diseases associated with sleep symptoms were depression, cognitive decline and diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm that sleep problems are very common in elderly subjects and closely related to medical and psychiatric illnesses.