Distance to Specialist Medical Care and Diagnosis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Rural Saskatchewan

Table 4

Characteristics of adults who likely required this specialist medical care (n = 2813; 2230 households).

Characteristics	Proportion (%)	Obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in the absence of a sleep apnea diagnosis (n = 2432; 86%)		value^a	Travel distance to specialist medical care ≥ 250 km (n = 761; 27%)		value^a
		n	Row %		n	Row %
Exposure
Travel distance to specialist medical care (km)
<100	19	480	87.6	0.71	—	—	—
100–189	28	669	85.4		—	—
190–249	26	622	86.3		—	—
≥250	27	661	86.9		—	—
Potential confounders
Age (years)
18–45	21	533	91.1	0.003	140	23.9	0.12
46–55	29	695	85.3		224	27.5
56–65	28	676	85.6		215	27.2
>65	22	528	84.8		182	29.2
Sex
Females	36	922	89.9	<0.001	269	26.2	0.24
Males	64	1510	84.5		492	27.5
Body mass index (kg/m^2)
Normal (<25)	19	479	91.4	<0.001	128	24.4	0.52
Overweight (25–29.9)	41	1041	90.1		312	27.0
Obese (≥30)	40	912	80.5		321	28.3
Education level
Postsecondary	39	947	86.3	0.80	287	26.1	0.40
Secondary or less	61	1485	86.6		474	27.6
Money left over at the end of the month
Some	59	1452	87.5	0.005	423	25.5	0.19
Just enough	20	489	87.8		153	27.5
Not enough	21	491	82.4		185	31.0
Heavy alcohol consumption, more than 5 drinks on one occasion
Never	50	1217	86.2	0.03	402	28.5	0.26
1/month or less	34	837	87.6		248	25.9
1/week or less	13	320	87.0		97	26.4
More than 1/week	3	58	75.3		14	18.2
Smoking status
Never	46	1118	86.5	0.47	349	27.0	0.98
Past	41	981	85.8		314	27.5
Current	13	333	88.3		98	26.0

^a value from Rao-Scott chi-square tests for significant difference in proportions with obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in the absence of a sleep apnea diagnosis/travel distance to specialist medical care ≥250 km between levels of each variable.