ABSTRACT

Sleep-disordered breathing causes fatigue and daytime sleepiness. Since cervical and thoracic involvement, it is suspected as sleep disordered breathing is frequent in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and axial spondylarthritis (SpA). But there are limited studies on this subject. This study is aimed to investigate daytime sleepiness in SpA patients.

Totally 143 SpA patients (F/M: 46/97) fulfilling ASAS-EULAR 2009 criteria and 135 healthy subjects (F/M: 45/90) were included into the study. Daytime sleepiness investigated with Epworth test. In addition to routine laboratory tests, metrological measures, BASDAI and BASFI were done.

There was no difference between patients and controls regarding ages (respectively 36.2±11.5 vs. 34.8±9.2 years, p=0.29). Median disease duration was 5 (IQR:3-10) years. Epworth scores were not statistically different between groups (respectively 3 [IQR:1-7] vs. 3 [IQR:2-5], p=0.86). There was no difference between the SpA group and control group regarding subjects with Epworth score >10 (12 [8.39%] vs. 8 [5.92%], p=0.41). Epworth scores were positively correlated with BASDAI and BASFI (respectively r2= 0.246, p=0.003 and r2=0.225, p=0.007).

Day-time sleepiness was not different between SpA patients and controls. But patients with higher Epworth scores had high disease activity. Daytime sleepiness should be kept in mind especially in SpA patients with active disease.