Trends in anthropometry and severity of sleep-disordered breathing over two decades of diagnostic sleep studies in an Australian adult sleep laboratory.

Objective: To document trends in subject demographics, anthropometry and sleep disorder severity over 21 years of diagnostic sleep studies.

Design, Participants And Setting: A retrospective observational study of consecutive subjects undergoing initial diagnostic polysomnography for investigation of possible sleep disorders in a university-affiliated tertiary public metropolitan hospital in the Hunter New England region of New South Wales between 1987 and 2007.

Main Outcome Measures: Body weight, body mass index (BMI) and severity of sleep-related breathing disorders (apnoea-hypopnoea index [AHI]).