Obstructive Sleep Apnea in adults Demographic Paper
Walter Pacheco
HCS 490 Health Care Consumer trends and Marketing
Tuesday 13, 2012
Melinda O'Brien

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in adults Demographic Paper
This paper is about the demographics on obstructive sleep apnea on adults comparing between Hispanic (Baldwin, Rernaga-Ornelas, Caudillo-Cisneros, Márquez-Gamiño, & Quan, 2012), African American, and Caucasian populations (Ram, Seirawan, Kumar, & Clark, 2009). Data shows how each of these groups are affected by obstructive sleep apnea and why income affects Hispanics, African Americans, and Caucasians differently. The impact obstructive sleep apnea has in the health care market (AlGhanim, Comondore, Fleetham, Marra, & Ayas, 2007). How and why the changes in demographics of these three populations affect health care (AlGhanim, Comondore, Fleetham, Marra, & Ayas, 2007). Two key health care related challenges Hispanics, African Americans, and Caucasians may experience with health care are costs, and in-home care (Hillman, Murphy, & Pezzullo, 2006). This paper will describe how a wellness program can affect the cost of health care and in-home care for the three groups, and the services available for any who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (Downey III, Mosenifar, Gold, Rowley, Wickramasinghe, Sharma, Talavera, Ouellette, & Tino, 2012). Finally this paper will give examples on how an individual, the community, and society can address these challenges of obstructive sleep apnea (Downey III, Mosenifar, Gold, Rowley, Wickramasinghe, Sharma, Talavera, Ouellette, & Tino, 2012)
It is of no surprise to learn that like all other illnesses and chronic diseases, certain groups are affected more than others. Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the illnesses that data shows to affect Hispanic and African American communities, more than Caucasian communities. Sleep disorders tend to cover a multitude of illnesses such as obstructive sleep apnea, and insomnia. Sleep apnea symptoms are excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, loud snoring, episodes of breathing cessation during sleep, abrupt awakenings followed by shortness of breath, dry mouth, sore throat, headaches or migraines, insomnia, difficulty concentrating (Mayo Clinic, 2012). The Center for Disease Control and Preventions reported in 2009 that some form of sleep disorder affects Caucasians 33.4%, African Americans 52.4%, and Hispanics 41.9% of all these, the sleep disorders affect males more often than females. Males at 38.4% and females at 37.3% of combine populations for Caucasians, African Americans, and Hispanics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Combine, approximately 40 million people suffer from some form of sleep disorder, from this, approximately 18 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea with an estimated additional 10 million people remain undiagnosed. Over 50% of those diagnosed are over the age of 40 and prevalent on males more than females. Estimates demonstrate 4 to 9% of middle-age men suffer from sleep apnea compared to 2 to 4% of middle-age women (Delta Sleep Labs Inc., 2012). A study conducted The U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health conducted a one night sleep study with a single channel airflow monitor, meaning all subjects received same air pressure and form of delivering air on 211 Hispanics and 246 Caucasians at the Minnesota Field Center of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (Yamagishi, Ohira, Nakano, Bielinski, Sakurai, Imano, Kiyama, Sato, Shahar, Folsom, Iso, & Tanigawa, 2012). The sleep apnea disorder was higher on males at 34.22% than women at 14.8%, and higher on Hispanics at 36.5% than Caucasians at 33.3% this corresponding to within the same body mass on all subjects (Yamagishi, Ohira, Nakano, Bielinski, Sakurai, Imano, Kiyama, Sato, Shahar, Folsom, Iso, & Tanigawa, 2012). Different body mass on subjects did not show significant results (Yamagishi, Ohira, Nakano, Bielinski, Sakurai, Imano, Kiyama, Sato, Shahar, Folsom, Iso, & Tanigawa, 2012).
This type of data shows that minority groups suffer more of obstructive sleep apnea than Caucasians, partly because of access to medical care. This can impact the way health care market affects each ethnic group. Lower income groups such as Hispanics and African Americans tend to have insufficient or no health care insurance while at the same time local hospitals and clinics may not provide high quality health care services. The disproportionately affected minority groups who happen to be economically at a disadvantage suffer from poor health and shorter lifespan more often than Caucasian (Redline & Williams, 2012). Because of lower income within minority groups, individuals have no other choice but to avoid doctor’s office and only go to emergency hospitals for care, often times when symptoms of illness has become critical. This adds to the vicious cycle that affects the health care market in The United States. Hospitals than pass of most of those costs on to other services, thus increasing the charge of other services to those that have insurance. Insurance companies in turn pass on those increases onto employers, then employers not able to absorb the full cost of insurance have to lower the benefits provided to employees and have employees pay more out of pocket.
Changes are not easy for a system that shows to affect certain ethnic groups better than other ethnic groups. This is not to say that individuals in minority groups cannot improve their health at home from a change of lifestyle and diet, as much can be done to lessen the effects of sleep apnea. One major way to change the lifestyles of individuals is by educating those in minority groups. Free clinics, television adds, internet, radio announcements are just a few ways to communicate to people of minority groups on how and where to find information on improving lifestyles and diets. Avoid alcohol, smoking, medicines that make individuals sleepy, lose weight, sleeping on one side instead of facing up or down (American Sleep Association, 2007). Simple changes can make a big difference in a person’s life and also affect a person’s health by losing weight, sleeping on one side of the body, and breathe easier thus avoid having sleep studies and the use expensive CPAP devices or avoid surgeries. This in turn can affect the cost in insurance premiums and the cycle of why health care costs so much can probably be reversed.
Two key health care related challenges Hispanics, African Americans, and Caucasians may experience with health care are costs, and in-home care (Hillman, Murphy, & Pezzullo, 2006). Obstructive sleep apnea is still not fully understood by the health care community partly because most people who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea have not been diagnosed properly, do not follow doctor’s advice in the use of medications, CPAP equipment, diet, and exercise. These patients return to the doctor’s office and claim that the treatment is not working, thus leaving the medical professionals wondering if the data studies have collected are accurate or not. In turn, doctors continue to run tests, try surgeries, and other treatments that may offer little to no successful results. This type of approach drives the health care costs up for everyone. Surgeries are not cost effective for either health insurance companies or low income minority groups such as Hispanics and African Americans. Surgeries that can increase health care costs include uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, the removal of tonsils, uvula, adenoids, and part of the soft palate (American Sleep Association, 2007). laser assisted uvulopalatoplasty will drive the costs even higher as a laser is involve in removing the uvula and part of the soft palate. Extreme surgeries that can range in the tens of thousands of dollars can include Tracheostomy where a hole is made in the windpipe and a tube is inserted for the patient to breathe, rebuilding the lower jaw, nose surgery, and even surgery to treat obesity (American Sleep Association, 2007). One way a wellness program can affect lowering the costs of obstructive sleep apnea is by educating the patient in-home care treatments that can include diet and exercise but also can include nasal sprays, adjust CPAP air pressure settings, adjust or replace masks, add or adjust moisture to the CPAP settings, mouthpieces to stop teeth from grinding and locking the jaw (American Sleep Association, 2007). Educating patients on the possibilities that extreme surgeries may not help but the pain can sometimes take up to three to four weeks before finding any relief and an additional two to three months before noticing any positive effects from such extreme surgeries. Besides surgeries being very painful, there are no guarantees that surgery would help much, and the patient has to pay more out of pocket.
Marketing services needed for these populations are in high demand. Most marketing services usually come from doctors, which a person must be aware that he or she has obstructive sleep apnea before a doctor can diagnose it, other forms of marketing services come from unwanted junk emails to which most people have learned to ignore, avoid by having the junk email go straight to a junk email folder or delete folder. Using transformational appeal would work on most patients (Kotler, Shalowitz, & Stevens, 2008). Patients with obstructive sleep apnea tend to respond positively to a transformational appeal because it stirs emotions by explaining to patients the risks associated to obstructive sleep apnea. A positive outcome can be achieve with the use of both negative and positive appeals by using emotions such us fear of heart attacks, guilt of not letting spouse have a restful sleep due to patient’s snoring.
The challenges the individual faces are numerous. Awareness of the illness being the most elusive, then income can be an almost impossible challenge to overcome. Education is the best way to overcome some of these challenges. Educating minority groups to a lifestyle change is in the best interest of the patient. By changing diet and some form of exercise with the goal to lose weight can be cost effective for the patient and avoid other health complications due to overweight and obstructive sleep apnea. Hispanic communities as well as the African American communities can do more to educate their own communities by advertising on television, radio or newspapers the symptoms and outcomes of obstructive sleep apnea. In a society where free clinics are common, free clinics can also take the initiative in trying to reach those with little or no health insurance by mail or whenever such patients come in for a free doctor’s visit.
In conclusion, identifying the target populations for obstructive sleep apnea have on three different groups, Hispanics (Baldwin, Rernaga-Ornelas, Caudillo-Cisneros, Márquez-Gamiño, & Quan, 2012), African American, and Caucasians (Ram, Seirawan, Kumar, & Clark, 2009). This paper managed to explain some of the data that describes the effect the different ethnic groups have when dealing with obstructive sleep apnea, Caucasians 33.4%, African Americans 52.4%, and Hispanics 41.9%. Sleep disorders affect males more often than females. Sleep disorders affects males at 38.4% and females at 37.3% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). This type of data shows that minority groups suffer more of obstructive sleep apnea than Caucasians, partly because of access to medical care. This can impact the way health care market affects each ethnic group. Income is the most obvious challenge the three groups fair differently with obstructive sleep apnea. Lower income ethnic groups do not get the same quality of health care as Caucasian because health care providers in lower income areas do not always have the same level of technology, specialists, and funds to provide patients with the same quality health care service Caucasian or more affluent areas may have. The other main challenges Hispanic and African American groups have is in-home care. Lower income families in Hispanic and African American communities do not have health insurance; this leaves families to deal with illnesses on their own. Wellness program can affect lowering the costs of obstructive sleep apnea. By educating the patient in-home care treatments that can include diet and exercise, nasal sprays, adjust CPAP air pressure settings, adjust or replace masks, mouthpieces to stop teeth from grinding and locking the jaw (American Sleep Association, 2007). Most marketing services usually come from doctors. More is needed to reach lower income communities. Using transformational appeal would work on most patients. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea tend to respond positively to a transformational appeal because it stirs emotions by explaining to patients the risks associated to obstructive sleep apnea (Kotler, Shalowitz, & Stevens, 2008). The challenges the individual faces are numerous. Awareness of the illness being the most elusive, then income can be an almost impossible challenge to overcome. Education is the best way to overcome some of these challenges. . Hispanic communities as well as the African American communities can do more to educate their own communities by advertising on television, radio or newspapers the symptoms and outcomes of obstructive sleep apnea. free clinics can also take the initiative in trying to reach those with little or no health insurance by mail or whenever such patients come in for a free doctor’s visit.

References
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