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Risk factors for snoring among Japanese men and women: a community-based cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to examine risk factors for snoring, a major symptom of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) because the evidence is limited in Asian populations.

Methods

Subjects for the present cross-sectional study were 3,138 men and 5,345 women aged 35–79 years from three communities in Japan who participated in the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study. The data on snoring frequency and cardiovascular health were obtained during annual cardiovascular surveys between 2000 and 2005. The logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) for snoring associated with body mass index (BMI), alcohol consumption, and other cardiovascular risk factors.

Results

The prevalence of almost everyday snoring was 24% among men and 10% among women. After adjustments for age, community, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and for women, menopausal status, the multivariable-adjusted ORs for everyday snoring in the highest versus lowest quartiles of BMI categories were 3.4 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6–4.4) for men and 3.9 (2.8–5.4) for women. The respective ORs in ≥23 g ethanol per day versus never-drinkers categories were 1.4 (1.1–1.8) and 3.1 (1.8–5.3) and those in ≥20 cigarettes versus never-smokers categories were 1.4 (1.0–1.8) and 1.9 (0.9–3.7). The associations of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking with everyday snoring were stronger for BMI < 25 kg/m2 than BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 in both sexes.

Conclusion

BMI, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking were positively associated with habitual snoring for both men and women, especially in nonoverweight persons.

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Acknowledgments

This study was not industrial study. This study was supported in part by grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [Grant-in-Aid for research B, 14370132]; the Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant [Clinical Research for Evidence Based Medicine, J060701211], Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor, the FULLHAP, Japan; and the University Research Project Research Grant (B), University of Tsukuba.

We appreciate Professors Emeritus Yoshio Komachi, Takashi Shimamoto, and Masamitsu Konish for their coordination for the present survey. We acknowledge Ms. Kazuyo Kamei, Dr. Satoyo Ikehara, and Mr. Kotatsu Maruyama for the sleep data collection, Drs. Renzhe Cui and Hiroyuki Noda and Mr. Isao Muraki for programming and statistical analyses.

Conflict of interest

Ms. Nagayoshi has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Yamagishi has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Tanigawa has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Sakurai has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Kitamura has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Kiyama has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Imano has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Ohira has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Sato has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Sankai has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Iso has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamada, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Mako Nagayoshi, Hironori Imano, Tetsuya Ohira & Hiroyasu Iso

  2. Department of Public Health Medicine, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kazumasa Yamagishi

  3. Department of Public Health, Doctoral Program in Social Medicine, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Japan

    Takeshi Tanigawa & Susumu Sakurai

  4. Osaka Medical Center for Health Science and Promotion, Osaka, Japan

    Akihiko Kitamura & Masahiko Kiyama

  5. Chiba Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Chiba, Japan

    Shinichi Sato

  6. Industrial Safety & Health Department, Canon Inc. Toride Plant, Toride, Japan

    Tomoko Sankai

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  1. Mako Nagayoshi
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  2. Kazumasa Yamagishi
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  3. Takeshi Tanigawa
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Correspondence to Hiroyasu Iso.

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Nagayoshi, M., Yamagishi, K., Tanigawa, T. et al. Risk factors for snoring among Japanese men and women: a community-based cross-sectional study. Sleep Breath 15, 63–69 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-009-0319-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-009-0319-6

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