Asthma and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common but under-diagnosed form of sleep disordered breathing (SDB). Asthma is a common disease with rising prevalence, which continues to pose significant morbidity and costs. In spite of considerable progress in our understanding of asthma, a large number of individuals with asthma continue to have symptoms and subsequently, have a poor functional status, poor quality of life and increased health care costs. In many cases no apparent cause is found and optimal therapy does not achieve its goal. While recent data suggests that OSA is common in severe asthma, the prevalence of OSA and its predisposing factors have not been studied.