Introduction: Sleep disordered breathing encompasses a spectrum of disorders ranging from simple snoring to severe obstructive sleep apnea. The burden of disease is falling disproportionately on high-income countries. If left untreated, obstructive sleep apnea has negative long-term health consequences such as increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, heart attack, traffic and work accidents, dementia, and stroke. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of snoring, pauses in breathing during sleep, and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in Germany and to examine the association of these events with body mass index and other sociodemographic variables.

Materials & Methods: A representative sample of 546 women and 549 men aged 18-100 years participated in an online interview survey. Descriptive proportions of snoring, breathing pauses and socioeconomic variables were calculated. Logistic regression analyses were performed, including Odds ratios and 95%-Cis, to quantify the association of snoring and breathing pauses with socioeconomic variables.

Results: 60.4% of men and 45.4% of women reported that they snore, while 19.3% of men and 13.9% of women reported that they stop breathing at night. The presence of snoring and pauses in breathing was confirmed by 11.6% of the female and 16.4% of the male participants. Snoring and breathing pauses were both significantly associated with male gender, high BMI, drinking more than 4 units of alcohol per day, smoking, thyroid disease, hypertension, COPD, and daytime sleepiness.

Conclusion: The data suggest that sleep-disordered breathing is underdiagnosed in Germany. Screening tools to identify patients with OSA should be used routinely to meet the needs of care.

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