Sleep Apnea and Other Sleep Disorders: Survey in Individuals with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this survey was to gather data about the incidence of various sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea, in subjects with IPF who participated in a regional patient-oriented seminar on this condition. We hypothesized that the frequency of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and psychiatric sleep disorders would be disproportionately high in the IPF population. Methods:The project was a one-time survey administered to stable patients with IPF and their family members from the South eastern USA who participated in the "Living with IPF" public seminar at the Emory University campus. The survey used a validated questionnaire, i.e., Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SDQ), to detect presence of Sleep Apnea (SA) and selected sleep disorders -Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), Psychiatric Sleep Disorders (PSY) and narcolepsy (NAR). The questionnaire was administered to all participants (with and without IPF), in a confidential manner. The findings were used to determine if there were differences in the incidence of SA and other sleep disorders between individuals with IPF and those without the disease.Results: A total of 52 people agreed to participate in the study. One subject was excluded due to unclear IPF status. The median SDQ raw scores in IPF patients for SA, RLS, PSY and NAR were 28.7, 27.1, 26.2 and 26.5, respectively; overall, they were not statistically different in IPF patients versus control subjects. However, as validated in other studies, patients with history of OSA had significantly higher SDQ-SA scores. Conclusions:The present study aimed to investigate cross-sectionally the incidence of self-reported sleep conditions in patients with IPF versus healthy family member controls. Overall, we did not find a disproportionately higher incidence of sleep disorders in the IPF population. This may be explained by inherent methodological limitations and the small sample size.