THE SLEEP HEART HEALTH STUDY

National Healthcare -The Journal of the National Association of Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals Inc.

The Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) is the American National Institute of Health, multicentre (7 administrative and 10 geographical sites), 5 year project that aims to characterise the extent to which sleep disordered breathing is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

The study design calls for the measurement of sleep and respiration in 6000 participants recruited from ongoing cohort studies around the USA (eg. the Framingham Heart Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, etc.), with prospective determinations of morbidity (eg. myocardial infaction, stroke, etc.) and mortality. This is the largest project ever of sleep apnea, and one which may significantly impact the understanding of the morbid consequences of the disorder, and will help formulate approaches for identifying high risk subjects. As a result of this study it is hoped that there will be a significant contribution to the establishment of quality assurance standards for the performance and interpretation of sleep studies. The Australian company Compumedics was selected to supply the analysis software and the hardware for the study. 39 portable systems are being supplied along with 9 replay and 4 to 6 analysis systems.