Sleep Health in Tetraplegia



Sleep Health in Tetraplegia

Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - A Population Survey and Home Monitoring of Sleep Disordered Breathing

Chief Investigator: Dr David Berlowitz

Associate Investigators: Associate Professor Doug Brown, Professor Robert Pierce

Lead Organisation: Institute for Breathing and Sleep

TAC Neurotrauma Funding: $356,688

Project Dates: 16 October 2006 – 31 August 2008

Background:

People with spinal cord injury have significantly more sleep disturbances and disorders than the general population. Although a small number of studies have been conducted within this area, there have been no comprehensive surveys with follow-up sleep studies of people living with tetraplegia.

Aims:

We determined the prevalence and nature of sleep disturbances in people living with tetraplegia in Victoria.

Methods:

A postal survey was sent to people with tetraplegia in Victoria and sleep studies performed in their homes.

Results:

One hundred and sixty three surveys were returned, which was 38% of those that were delivered to potential participants, and 106 people agreed to have sleep studies. The surveys revealed that the participants had been living with tetraplegia for an average of 11 years, were predominantly male (36 female), middle aged (average age of 46) and tended to be overweight. Compared to published values in the able-bodied, people with tetraplegia reported taking longer to fall asleep and woke more often during the night. The participants reported that they had “very poor” health overall compared with the “good” health that is reported in the general population. The sleep studies that we performed in participants’ homes showed that it does take longer for people with tetraplegia to fall sleep and then to enter Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or dreaming sleep. These differences were particularly pronounced in those with more severe injuries. Sleep apnoea was very common and was associated with a substantial reduction in quality of life

Conclusions:

The subjective reports of sleep disturbances that people with tetraplegia provide are closely related to abnormalities that are recorded during sleep studies. These symptoms are associated with large quality of life and relate to potentially treatable disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnoea. However, we know that treating sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnoea in people with tetraplegia is particularly difficult. The results of this project strongly suggest that further research into effective treatment strategies in this population is urgently needed and importantly we now have knowledge that will allow us to target further investigations at those disorders that impair quality of life the most.

Publications:

BERLOWITZ DJ, SPONG J, PIERCE RJ, ROSS J, BARNES J, BROWN DJ. The feasibility of using auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure to treat obstructive sleep apnoea after acute tetraplegia. Spinal Cord. 2009;47:868-873.

Presentations:

SPONG J, ROSS J, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep health in tetraplegia – a Victorian population survey. ANZCoS Annual Scientific Meeting; 2007 November 1-3, Sydney, Australia.

SPONG J, RILEY D, ROSS J, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep health in tetraplegia – A Victorian population survey. Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting; 2008 March 30 - April 2, Melbourne, Australia.

SPONG J, RILEY, ROSS J, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Preliminary findings from a Victorian population survey. American Thoracic Society 105th International Conference; 2008 May 16-21, Toronto, Canada.

SPONG J, RILEY D, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ, DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Polysomnographic Characteristics of a Community Population. 20th Annual Scientific meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association; 2008 October 2-4, Adelaide, Australia.

SPONG J, RILEY D, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ, DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Sleep Symptoms, Functional Outcomes and Quality of Life in a Community Population. 20th Annual Scientific meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association; 2008 October 2-4, Adelaide, Australia.

SPONG J, RILEY D, PIERCE RJ, BROWN DJ, BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Polysomnographic Characteristics of a Community Population. Australian & New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting; 2008 November 26-28, Christchurch, New Zealand. (Poster)

BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Polysomnographic Characteristics of a Community Population. Australian & New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting; 2008 November 26-28, Christchurch, New Zealand.

BERLOWITZ DJ. Sleep Health in Tetraplegia - Sleep symptoms, functional outcomes and quality of life in a community population. Australian & New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting; 2008 November 25-27, Christchurch, New Zealand.

*The work of this project has provided the foundation for the TAC funded Research Program Sleep Health in Quadriplegia

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download