Individual and socioeconomic consequences of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Abstract

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is defined as obstruction of air passage through the upper airways during sleep. The patient has repeated episodes of hypoxemia and hypercapnia, and because of those events, the sleep becomes superficial and fragmented, resulting in a series of complications for the individual and the community. The aim of the present study was to review the literature about individual, economic and social consequences caused by OSAS. Several complications of OSAS related to the individual were identified: (1) physical and behavioral changes: excessive sleeping, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, depression, decreased libido, decreased quality of life, metabolic (such as weight gain, diabetes and dyslipidemia) and cardiovascular consequences (such as hypertension, atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease); (2) neurocognitive impairment: deficits in attention, perception, memory, reasoning, opinion, thought and language. There are also some socio-economic repercussions related to OSAS, such as: (1) increased number, proportion and gravity of traffic accidents due to the decrease of driver’s concentration; (2) occupational injury with a fall in productivity, layoffs and workplace accidents; (3) social loss: the individual with OSAS is also a potential danger to society by increasing malpractice; (4) increased public and private expenditures: maintenance of highways and structure of supervision and support, social security spending, costs with diagnosis, therapies and hospital.  SAS should be considered a public health disease, given their unequivocal individual, social and economical damages. Specific policies should be implemented to reduce the impact of those consequences.