Physicians

Some brief facts on Sleep Apnea in Australia

Sleep Apnea is highly prevalent in Australia and snoring and sleepiness are common symptoms presenting to General Practice

• In Australia, 6% of patients reported visiting a doctor for a problem of sleep apnoea or snoring¹
• It is estimated that more than 60% of adults occasionally snore and more than 30% regularly snore²
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) occurs in approximately 10% of females and 25% of males^3,4
• The Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) accepted that in Australia approximately 20% of the population suffered mild OSA and approximately 5% suffered moderate to severe OSA⁵
• Given the recent rise in obesity, the prevalence of sleep related symptoms, snoring, and OSA are likely to have increased⁶
• More than 80% of OSA sufferers are yet to be diagnosed⁷

The relationship between OSA and other health risks is well established

 Prevalence of Sleep Disordered Breathing ¹²³⁴

1Silversberg, D., 2Logan et al., 3O’Keefe et al., 4Einhorn et al.

There are many barriers that currently inhibit the effective diagnosis and treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). These include:

• Long waiting lists for public sleep laboratories
• The often significant out of pocket expense of private sleep laboratory studies for patients
• Patients inability to sleep during a hospital study due the changed sleeping environment

Healthy Sleep Solutions is dedicated to removing these barriers by providing you with a convenient, cost effective and simple solution for the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management of OSA.

Our team of patient centric sleep technicians are expert at facilitating home-based, ambulatory sleep studies and are also best placed to provide treatment solutions and ongoing follow up to those patients identified with sleep apnea. Our focus is on offering both you and your patient a convenient and simple end to end disease management solution for sleep apnea.

¹ Marshall NS, Bartlett DJ, Matharu KS, Williams A, Grunstein RR. Prevalence of treatment choices for snoring and sleep apnea in an Australian population. J Clin Sleep Med 2007;3:695–9
² Koskenvuo M, Kaprio J, Telakivi T, Partinen M, Heikkilä K, Sarna S. Snoring as a risk factor for ischaemic heart disease and stroke in men. BMJ (Clin Res Ed) 1987;294:16–9
³ Young T, Palta M, Dempsey J, Skatrud J, Weber S, Badr S. The occurrence of sleep-disordered breathing among middle-aged adults. N Engl J Med1993;328:1230–5
⁴ Bearpark H, Elliott L, Grunstein R, et al. Snoring and sleep apnea. A population study in Australian men. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1995;151:1459–6
⁵ Medical Services Advisory Committee, Public Summary Document, Application No. 1130 – Unattended Sleep Studies in the Diagnosis and Reassessment of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea March 2010
⁶ Crummy F, Piper AJ, Naughton MT. Obesity and the lung: 2. Obesity and sleep disordered breathing. Thorax 2008;63:738–46
⁷ Fatigue and Transport Working Party (Ad hoc sub-committee of the Australasian Sleep Association 03-04)