A quarter of Chilean adults flag as high risk for sleep apnoea

Obstructive sleep apnoea, in which the airway repeatedly narrows or collapses during sleep, affects nearly one billion people worldwide, yet it remains heavily underdiagnosed and undertreated. The problem is thought to be worst in middle-income countries, where sleep laboratories and testing equipment are scarce. Chile had no clear national picture of how common the condition or its warning signs actually are. This review set out to pull together every Chilean study on the prevalence, risk and symptoms of the disorder and produce a single pooled estimate.

The researchers searched seven databases for any study reporting the prevalence, risk or symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea in Chile, then pooled the prevalence estimates statistically. Fifteen studies covering 13,157 participants made the cut. Most relied on screening tools: the STOP-Bang questionnaire and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale were used most often, with the Berlin Questionnaire and sleep quality indices appearing less frequently. Only three studies used respiratory polygraphy, equipment that actually records breathing overnight.

Pooled across studies, 25% of participants scored at moderate-to-high risk of obstructive sleep apnoea, defined by a STOP-Bang score above 3. The uncertainty around that figure was wide, running from 16% to 34%, and the individual studies disagreed with each other strongly. The most frequently reported symptoms were snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness and apnoeas witnessed by a bed partner. Because objective diagnostic methods were so rarely used, the review describes risk of the condition rather than confirmed cases.

The result fits the broader global picture of a very common, routinely missed condition, and it puts a first pooled number on the burden in Chile specifically. It also exposes a gap: the estimate rests almost entirely on questionnaires rather than overnight testing, so the true rate of confirmed disease there is still unknown. The authors call for population-based research using standardised, objective assessment tools to pin the figure down and to inform public health strategy properly.

The striking part for a general reader is how ordinary the warning signs are: loud snoring, heavy daytime sleepiness and breathing pauses noticed by a partner were the symptoms reported most often. Score-based questionnaires are how risk gets flagged before any formal sleep study happens. If that cluster of symptoms sounds familiar, this is a reason to take it seriously rather than writing it off as normal snoring, because the condition is common and very often goes undetected.