1 In 6 S. Koreans Suffer From Sleep Apnea: Study

One out of every 6 South Korean adults are suspected to suffer from sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that can cause various diseases, a study showed Monday.

SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Mar, 2018 ) :One out of every 6 South Korean adults are suspected to suffer from sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that can cause various diseases, a study showed Monday.

The study showed that 15.8 percent of the 2,740 adults surveyed said they experience the disorder, which is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep, according to the study by Soonchunhyang University.

If the pauses each last more than 10 seconds and happen many times a night, the condition is considered to be a disease. Sleep apnea, if left untreated for too long, could lead to fatal health problems, such as a stroke or a heart attack.

People, whose body mass index is more than 25, are 10.75 times more at risk of having sleep apnea, the study showed. Body Mass Index -- a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters -- is widely used as a screening tool for being overweight and obese.

People, whose body mass index is between 25 and less than 30, fall within the overweight range. People are considered obese if their BMI is 30 or higher, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.