Background: Obesity is a chronic disease and a public health problem that is introduced as an important risk factor for catching obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in some studies. The present study was done to investigate the relationship between obesity and OSA in depressed elderly patients.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from 2014 to 2015 on 175 depressed elderly patients referred to health centers of Saqqez, using clustering and available sampling in saqqez. Demographic form, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Berlin Questionnaire were used to gather the data. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 18) using descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov Smirinov, Mann Whitney- U, Chi-square and Exact Fischer tests. P- value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: 175 elderly depressed patients with mean age (± standard deviation) of 69.42±8 years were studied. 106 peoples (60.6%) were at high risk for OSA. There was a significant relationship between OSA and obesity (P<0.05). The odds ratio for obesity in OSA people was 2.2 compared to those without OSA (OR: 2.2; 95%CI: 1.2-4.2; p <0.05).

Conclusion: There is relationship between body mass index and OSA in depressed elderly patients.

Keywords: Elderly, Body mass index, Depression, Obstructive sleep apnea.