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Socio-demographic characteristics, health behaviour, co-morbidity and accidents in snorers: a population survey

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Abstract

Objective

We assessed the socio-demographic correlates of snoring and also the patterns of health behaviour and co-morbidity associated with different types of snoring in the Hungarian population. We wanted to study whether different types of snoring are associated with high-risk health behaviour, chronic illnesses, daytime consequences of poor sleep, and with frequent accidents compared with non-snoring individuals.

Method

This is a cross-sectional study. Interviews were carried out in the homes of 12,643 people. This was the largest nationally representative study in Central Europe about health behaviour. In the Athens Insomnia Scale, questions about snoring and sleep behaviour, life-style factors and health behaviour, as well as questions on their history and current medical treatment were included in the questionnaire.

Results

Thirty-seven percent of males and 21% of females reported loud snoring with breathing pauses. We found a significant increasing trend for the consumption of alcohol and coffee as well as smoking among non-snorers, habitual snorers and loud snorers, respectively. In an ordinal regression model male gender, the presence of smoking, the presence of three or more co-morbid conditions and alcohol consumption were independent predictors of snoring (OR [95% CI], 1.99 [1.85–2.1], 1.76 [1.60–1.92], 1.45 [1.30–1.62] and 1.22 [1.04–1.43], respectively, P < 0.001) after controlling for multiple socio-demographic and clinical variables. The frequency of accidents was higher in the loud snoring group than among non-snoring individuals (24% vs 17%, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions

Snoring is common in the Hungarian adult population. Snoring, especially loud snoring with breathing pauses, is strongly associated with high-risk health behaviour, higher co-morbidity and a higher frequency of accidents.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the other members of the "Hungarostudy 2002" team (Csilla Csoboth, György Gyukits, Katalin Hajdú, János Lőke, Andrea Odor, János Réthelyi, Sándor Rózsa, Árpád Skrabski, Adrienne Stauder, András Székely, László Szűcs) for their work and to the network of community nurses for the home interviews, and for the National Population Register for the sample selection.

The research of M. Novak has been supported by an unrestricted research grant from Canadian Home Healthcare Inc.

Funding

This study was supported by the NKFP 1/002/2001 project, by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), project No HUN/00/002/A/01/99, and the National Research Fund (OTKA) projects No: T-32974 (2000), TS-040889, T038409 (MN, IM) and the Foundation for Prevention in Medicine. This paper was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Marta Novak).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Peter Torzsa & Laszlo Kalabay

  2. Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Andras Keszei, Rezso Zoller, Istvan Mucsi, Marta Novak & Maria S. Kopp

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Andras Keszei

  4. Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Eszter Panna Vamos

  5. 1st Department of Internal Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Istvan Mucsi

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University Health Network, University of Toronto, EN 8-212, 200 Elizabeth Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5G 2C4

    Marta Novak

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  1. Peter Torzsa
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Correspondence to Marta Novak.

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Torzsa, P., Keszei, A., Kalabay, L. et al. Socio-demographic characteristics, health behaviour, co-morbidity and accidents in snorers: a population survey. Sleep Breath 15, 809–818 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-010-0442-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-010-0442-4

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