The health impact of disordered breathing during sleep among middle-aged and older men and women in the general population has not been well studied, and the need for treating relatively mild degrees of sleep- disordered breathing is unknown. We hypothesize that clinically inapparent sleep-disordered breathing is associated with blood pressure elevation, impairment of health-related quality of life, and depression. The goal of this study is to evaluate this hypothesis in a well- characterized cohort of middle-aged and older men and their wives. The study will use the VA Normative Aging Study (NAS) population, which consists of approximately 1,700 community-dwelling-men who return for examination every three years. We will assess respiratory function during sleep among these men and their wives using a validated method for home sleep monitoring. Blood pressure, health-related quality of life, and depression score will also be assessed in the home. The potential associations of sleep-disordered breathing with hypertension, impaired health-related quality of life, and depression will be evaluated, and the possibility that these relationships differ between men and women will be examined. The proposed investigation would be the first population study which examines the effect of sleep-disordered breathing on these health outcomes. This study will establish the prevalence of clinically important sleep-disordered breathing among middle-aged and older men and women and will provide quantitative data to serve as the basis for selecting patients for screening and deciding which patients may benefit from therapeutic intervention.
