Chest
Clinical InvestigationsObesity And HypoventilationThe Use of Health-Care Resources in Obesity-Hypoventilation Syndrome
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
This study was conducted in the Province of Manitoba (1997 population, 1,147,90016) where all residents have equal access to government-funded health care. Standardized data, based on every physician and hospital contact, are submitted to Manitoba Health, the provincial agency responsible for funding. This information (including patient identification, physician claims, diagnoses, costs, hospitalization, and institutionalization data) is maintained and controlled in the Manitoba Health Database
Results
The group of 20 OHS patients was made up of 8 men and 12 women. The mean (± SD) patient age was 52.7 ± 9.5 years, and the average BMI was 47.3 ± 11.0 kg/m2 (range, 33.9 to 69.0 kg/m2). The mean FEV1 was 64.4 ± 17.3% predicted, and the mean FEV1/FVC ratio was 77.0 ± 12.7%. The patients were significantly hypercapnic and hypoxemic (Paco2, 59.7 ± 13.8 mm Hg; Pao2, 51.6 ± 12.4 mm Hg).
Polysomnography revealed an average AHI of 20.7 ± 23.9 and marked hypoxemia during sleep, with patients spending
Discussion
An individual is overweight with a BMI of > 25 kg/m2, and obesity can be defined as a weight that is > 20% above ideal body weight or a BMI if > 30 kg/m2.1 Obesity is becoming a worldwide problem.1234 Morbid obesity, BMI (> 40 kg/m2), results in serious sequelae that place a burden on the health-care system. It has been estimated that the direct cost of obesity in Canada is about $2 billion per annum, or 2.4% of the total health-care budget.5 This is a result of long-term detrimental health
Conclusions
OHS patients are heavy users of health-care resources for several years prior to the evaluation and treatment of their sleep breathing disorder, and there is a substantial reduction in days hospitalized once treatment is instituted.
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Cited by (226)
Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Sarcoidosis Interactions
2024, Sleep Medicine ClinicsAdherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
2021, Sleep Medicine ClinicsCitation Excerpt :In a Danish registry, the cost of caring for patients with OHS was 7.5 times more than matched controls and 2.5 times more than patients with eucapnic OSA.29 In a retrospective study of 20 patients, PAP therapy was associated with a reduction in hospital resource use during the 2 years after initiating therapy compared with the 5 years before treatment.9 Well-designed prospective studies assessing whether long-term PAP therapy leads to a reduction in health care resource use compared with no therapy are lacking.
Pathophysiology of Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
2021, Encyclopedia of Respiratory Medicine, Second Edition
Supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant R01 HL63342–01A1.