Body Mass Index and Its Association with Daytime Sleepiness and Risk of Sleep Apnea Among Adults in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) KuantanBody Mass Index and Its Association with Daytime Sleepiness and Risk of Sleep Apnea Among Adults in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Kuantan

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity keeps rising by the year, and Malaysia was revealed as the top country in Southeast Asia that has a high prevalence of obesity. Due to the rising obesity globally is feared that it may be associated with the increasing chance of having sleep apnea and excessive daytime sleepiness. Consequently, it may lead to poor work performance, unfortunate accidents, and premature death if not treated earlier. This research sought to identify the BMI values and their association with the risk of sleep apnea and daytime sleepiness among adults in IIUM Kuantan. Methods: By applying convenience sampling, 143 respondents were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The Berlin questionnaire and Epworth Sleepiness Scale were used as the research instruments to determine the risk of sleep apnea and daytime sleepiness among the respondents, respectively. Ordinal Logistic Regression and Pearson correlation were used to analyse the associations. Result: The mean (SD) BMI was 22.3 kg/m2 (4.33)- normal, and the mean score of daytime sleepiness was 9.92 (4.80)- higher than normal. Most respondents had a low risk of sleep apnea (87.4%), 5.6% showed a slightly increased risk, and 7.0% had a high risk of sleep apnea. There is a significant association between BMI and risk of sleep apnea (p<0.05), as an increase in BMI (expressed in kg/m2) is associated with an increase in the odds of having a risk of sleep apnea. There is no significant association between BMI and daytime sleepiness (p>0.05), as these variables are weakly and inversely correlated. Conclusion: This study found a significant association between BMI and risk of sleep apnea. However, we failed to confirm the association between BMI and daytime sleepiness. Due to the lack of BMI varieties, the researcher recommends focusing on overweight and obese to get a wide variation of BMI.