Obstructive sleep apnea is a common disorder found in the community. OSA is a respiratory sleep disorder characterized by snoring and interrupted breathing that causes blood oxygen levels to drop below acceptable levels.

Patients who remain undiagnosed and untreated develop debilitating symptoms that greatly impact their quality of life. These patients can awaken hundred of times per night causing troubling lack of sleep. This can lead to poor job performance, motor vehicle or industrial accidents, personality changes and substantial loss of productivity.

The long term effects of low blood oxygen levels can lead to hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

The best study to date surveyed a random group of working age adults. The prevalence of symptomatic OSA was 4% in males and 2% in females (Young et al., New England Journal of Medicine 1993;328:1230-1235). Using figure derived from Statistics Canada (1991), there are 2,545,553 individuals residing in Alberta, of these 777,820 are males and 758,160 females between ages 20-65. Using the prevalence data of Young et al, this would mean that there are 46,275 Albertans of working age suffering symptomatic OSA.