Snoring is regarded as a common condition nowadays. Years ago it was regarded as a social nuisance and was thought as a harmless matter for the victim but now it is a matter of medical importance and related with many adverse health consequences. Frequency of snoring is 16%-89% in general populations, about 50% adult male and 24%-50% adult female are snorer with male to female ratio is 2.35: 1 [1,2]. It is a common condition, caused by movement of air across soft tissues of mouth and throat. Snoring is one end of the spectrum of sleep disordered breathing with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) at the other end. Snoring can be considered as a predecessor of OSA and needs to be evaluated and managed at an early stage. There is a close relationship between body anthropometry and snoring. Overweight induces multiple physiologic changes at the respiratory and circulatory system level. 24% of overweight men, 9% of women have Sleep Disordered Breathing compared with 1%-4% of total population. It may lead to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which requires an overnight PSG, which is an expensive test with limited availability. If we can predict sleep apnea early it will be great in a resource poor setting like Bangladesh. Neck circumference (NC), body mass index (BMI), snoring with pauses and excessive daytime sleepiness are simple some inexpensive simple tools which can be used for this prediction. So the present study was designed to see the relation of snoring habit with NC and BMI in the context of Bangladeshi populations.

This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of Bangladesh, among 119 healthy persons. During consulting the diseased person, the accompanying attendant who carried the patients were explained about the study and after an informed written consent from him/her, a structured questionnaire were introduced. Subjects were interviewed face to face using ‘snore survey’ questionnaire which was adopted from the Berlin questionnaire. Detailed information regarding snoring like snoring loudness, snoring frequency, bothersome snoring and nonbothersome snoring were recorded. BMI was calculated as weight in kg/height2 and NC was measured by placing a measuring tape just below the Adam's apple and extending the tape horizontally around the neck. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20.

Among the 119 respondents frequency of snoring was 23.5% (28). Where male snorer was 33.3% and female snorer was 12.5%. Snoring distributed from daily to monthly attacks. Some had very loud (25.0%) snoring and others also had variable loudness (Table 1). Among all 52.94% (63) male and 47.06% (56) female subjects were recruited. Male to female ratio was 1: 0.88 (Table 2). Snorers had statistically significant higher level of body weight and NC (P<0.001) but statistically insignificant height and BMI differences (P>0.05) (Table 3).

Table 1: Snoring characteristics of study subjects.

Table 2: Gender distribution with snoring among the study subjects.

Table 3: Relation of snoring with height, weight, BMI and neck circumferences.

With a valid response rate of 88.1%, 63 (52.94%) male and 56 (47.06%) female were recruited. Frequency of snoring was 28 (23.5%) of total subjects where male snorer was 33.3% and female snorer was 12.5%. In an Indian Study found 24%-50% of men, 14%-30% of women are snorer [3]. Snoring distributed from daily to monthly attacks. Some had very loud (25.0%) snoring and others also had variable loudness. A study done in India on apparently healthy attendants of patients in whom snoring was found in 31.1%. In another Indian study done by Udwadia et al. who found the prevalence of snoring of about 26% in middle-aged urban community [4].

Snorers had statistically significant higher level of body weight and NC (P<0.001) but statistically insignificant height and BMI differences (P>0.05). Body mass index was found uninfluenced in relation with snoring frequency which subsequently may lead to OSA. As the higher NC and BMI are on the higher side in the middle-aged population, there is greater prevalence of snoring and severe OSA in this age group. According to Bixler et al. the average BMI did increase with age for subjects with OSA [5]. As the present study is done on a small sample size (n=119) further large scale study is needed to explore whether these anthropometric variables actually has any influence in snoring status and also to have a strong conclusion. From this study it was found that snoring is not an uncommon medical condition among healthy young people. Considering the large population of Bangladesh these data may be poor and it needs a large scale study for the awareness among the patients as well as health professionals about this neglected but very significant health problem.