Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea in a sample of obese women: effect of menopause.

Abstract Obesity is a well known risk factor for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Previous studies have investigated the prevalence of OSA among obese people, but a sample of women was rarely studied. To describe the anthropometric and polysomnographic characteristics of a sample of obese women and investigate the effect of menopause on the prevalence of OSA. Using a full-night polysomnography we studied a sample of 133 obese women with a body mass index (BMI) > or = 30 kg/m2. About 44% of our sample had a respiratory disturbance index (RDI) > or = 10. Neck circumference, BMI and age resulted the strongest predictors of RDI value. We also found that the prevalence of OSA was higher among post-menopausal women (67%) in comparison with pre-menopausal women (31%). Moreover, post-menopausal women had larger neck circumference and higher waist-to-hip circumference ratio (WHR). Among post-menopausal obese women the prevalence of OSA increases. We suggest that menopause could cause a different body fat distribution with an increase of fat in upper parts of the body and, consequently, with an increase of neck circumference.