Awareness and knowledge of obstructive sleep apnea among the general population in the western region of Saudi Arabia

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common medical condition that causes pauses in breathing during sleep (SDB). It is distinguished by recurring episodes of partial or complete collapse of the upper airways. To assess the level of awareness and knowledge about obstructive sleep apnea OSA among adults in the western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This is cross-sectional observational study was conducted on a random sample of 500 participants from the general population of the western region of Saudi Arabia. It is including all participants over 18 year's old, female and male gender and Saudis and non-Saudis. For data analysis, we will use (SPSS) software version 24. Approval from the local Ethics Committee was obtained. Results: The study recruited 500 responses from the general community, 377 of whom were women (75.4%). The majority of participants (57%), were between the ages of 18 and 25, followed by those between the ages of 26 and 35 (17.4%) and 349 (70.2%) had a university education. Total of 403 participants (80.6%) felt that a person requires 7-9 hours of sleep every day. More than half of the participants (54%) stated that the mental benefits of enough sleep were the most significant, followed by the physical benefits (41.2%). Conclusion: The level of awareness of Saudi general population about obstructive sleep apnea in this study was poor. Knowledge of obstructive sleep apnea was correlated significantly with gender (p=0.049) and employment in the health industry (p=0.001).