In Braga, the initiative, which involves 32 people from the Associação de Solidariedade Social São Tiago de Fraião, includes a multidisciplinary team of health professionals, including doctors specializing in sleep medicine, and cardiopneumologist and neurophysiologist technicians, among other professionals.
Using advanced diagnostic technologies, such as polysomnography and night polygraphy, – say its promoters – “aims to identify and evaluate cases of Sleep Apnea”.
The presentation took place at the IPSS home – as part of World Sleep Day – in the presence of Ricardo Rio, president of the local City Council, clinical director Maria José Guimarães, head of the Sleep Clinic, Carla Guimarães, Goreti Machado, Association of Fraião, and António Ferreira, general director of the company Gasoxmed.
According to Ricardo Rio, – cited in a statement – the Municipality “has been involved in promoting several pioneering projects, which aim to contribute to improving the well-being and health of different segments of the population, with a special focus on the senior population”.
The head of the Clinic highlighted that “residents identified with sleep apnea are monitored in consultation and receive personalized treatment according to their needs.”
Maria José Guimarães, recalled that sleep apnea “is a sleep disorder whose incidence affects around 20% of the world’s adult population, with a significant impact on quality of life and health in general. We are therefore facing a public health problem, with this particular age group being greatly affected by this sleep disorder”.
However, – he added -, a large number of these patients “do not have the possibility of resorting to specialist medical care, either for mobility or financial reasons”.
Therefore, the ‘Senior Sleep’ Project emerged “in a first phase to confirm this prevalence and, in a later phase, to enable the treatment of this sleep disorder to reach these people”.
