The BOND Study - Part 1 (Introduction & Physical Comorbidity)

The BOND Study (which stands for the Burden of Narcolepsy Disease) was presented last week at Sleep2013, The Annual Meeting of the APSS (Associated Professional Sleep Societies) in America. These annual conferences focus upon sleep medicine and sleep research, and some very interesting research was presented this year. Now I've got my geeky paws on more specific details, I thought I'd break the study down into smaller, easier to post sections. This way my brain won't hurt too much!


Objective of the BOND study
The study (which was sponsored by Jazz Pharmaceuticals of Xyrem fame) set out to characterise comorbidity in people with narcolepsy. In layman's terms, research the other illness and conditions that PWN experience.

The subjects involved
The Study involved accessing an astounding 55,871 medical records, making it one of the largest pieces of research in this area ever. Records of 9,312 patients with narcolepsy were compared to 46,559 without narcolepsy. Every one PWN was compared to 5 without the condition and matched according to gender, age and payment of health care. Of the 9,312 PWN, 20% were identified as having narcolepsy with cataplexy and 59% were female. The ages of subjects ranged from 18-93 years old, with the average age being 46.

Brief Conclusion
The study concluded that narcolepsy is "associated with a surprising range and significantly high rate of comorbid medical illnesses" and that "patients with narcolepsy, with or without cataplexy, were more likely to suffer from higher frequency of comorbidities such as mental illness, endocrine disorders, digestive disorders and cardiovascular disease, and had twice the mean annual medical costs compared with the general population." (BOND, Press release 2013)

Results

Illness	Subjects with Narcolepsy	Subjects without Narcolepsy
Sleep Apnea	51.40%	5.70%
Depressive Disorders	35.80%	13.00%
Respiratory	90.90%	73.50%
Circulatory (circulation problems, including lungs and heart)	80.90%	64.30%
Genitourinary (urinary and genital areas)	77.50%	64.30%
Digestive System	73.90%	52.50%
Injury	72.10%	51.90%
Infectious Diseases	67.80%	53.60%
Skin	63.70%	49.30%
Mental Illness	62.30%	31.20%
Neoplasm (including cancerous and non-cancerous tumours)	55.70%	45.40%
Blood Diseases (blood & bone marrow)	30.70%	17.70%
Congenital anomalies (pre-birth & at point of birth)	13.90%	6.90%

Source: 2013_apss_medical_comorbidity poster.pdf

* I was a bit surprised by the the figure in the Circulatory category. I've checked the results again and it is correct*

Bond Study Part 2 - Psychiatric