Occupational status and sleep-disordered breathing in a sample of French males

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and lower socio-professional status have i n common a series of risk factors for ill health such as sedentary lifestyl e, weight excess, heavy alcohol and tobacco consumption. We hypothesised th at SDB will be more prevalent in lower socio-professional groups. A total o f 496 male middle aged subjects (23-66 years) were tested with a protocol i ncluding a self-completed structured sleep questionnaire (translation of th e Madison sleep cohort study form), anthropometry (including neck, waist an d hip girth) and a simple, non-invasive nose-throat examination by a specia list physician. The subjects were classified according to the 10 major grou ps of the ISCO-88 classification (International Labour Office). Our samplin g base did not contain subjects in the major groups 1 (senior officials, le gislators), 6 (fishery and agricultural workers), and zero (armed forces), thus these groups were not represented in the analysis. To improve the powe r of the statistical analysis, groups 3 and 4, 5 and 7, 8 and 9 were merged , the analysis thus including four categories. The differences in demograph ic data were negligible; as expected, smoking was more prevalent in low soc io-occupational groups (difference non-significant). A history of chronic b ronchitis was more frequent in low socio-occupational groups, while a low p hysical job labour was more frequent in higher occupational groups. We did not find any differences in the prevalence of sleep-related respiratory dis turbances (snoring, sleep apnoeas). This first study of the possible associ ation between socio-occupational factors and sleep disordered breathing was negative, but we believe further studies, on larger samples, with a more h omogeneous distribution of social groups are warranted.