Date of Award

Fall 3-5-2019

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Health Sciences

Department

Health and Medical Sciences

Advisor

Genevieve Pinto-Zipp, Ed.D.

Committee Member

Ning (Jackie) Zhang, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Gregg Marshall, Ph.D.

Keywords

Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Mixed Methods, Undiagnosed, OSA Knowledge and Belief

Abstract

Undiagnosed individuals with signs and symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at higher risk of severe health complications than healthy individuals, and they pose a huge economic burden on society as well. Some scholars reported the lack of public knowledge of OSA as a major contributor to this phenomenon. However, there is a lack of information about assessing public knowledge and health belief of OSA and its nature across the risk level of having OSA.

Two self-reporting questioners were used in this mixed method study, a PI developed survey, the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Knowledge and Belief (OSA-KAB) © was used assess adults’ knowledge and health beliefs surrounding OSA, and the STOP-Bang questionnaire that was used to categorized individuals based on their risk level of developing OSA.

The quantitative data result indicated a sever lack of knowledge of OSA across all seven subscales and was confirmed by the qualitive data. Additionally, while there was a significant, positive relationship between the knowledge and health belief, neither knowledge nor health belief scores were influenced by the risk level of OSA.

The results of this support a definite need to increase public knowledge about OSA, specifically risk factors and complications due to their impact on health belief. In addition, business owners need to identify the economic value of addressing their employees’ risk of OSA, as the cost of diagnosing and treating OSA was identified as a major barrier to usage.

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