Objective: To examine the research evidence for the health consequences of obstructive sleep apnoea and the effectiveness of continuous positive airways pressure. Design: A systematic review of published research, studies being identified by searching Medline (1966-96), Embase (1974-96), and CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) ; scanning citations; and consulting experts. Studies in all languages were considered which either investigated the association between obstructive sleep apnoea in adults and key health outcomes or evaluated the effectiveness of treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea with continuous positive airways pressure in adults. Main outcome measures: Mortality, systematic hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, ischaemic heart disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary hypertension, stroke, vehicle accidents, measures of daytime sleepiness, and quality of life. Results: 54 epidemiological studies examined the association between sleep apnoea and health related outcomes. Most were poorly designed and only weak or contradictory evidence was found of an association with cardiac arrhythmias, ischaemic heart disease, cardiac failure, systemic or pulmonary hypertension, and stroke. Evidence of a link with sleepiness and road traffic accidents was stronger but inconclusive. Only one small randomised controlled trial evaluated continuous positive airways pressure. Five non-randomised controlled trials and 38 uncontrolled trials were identified. Small changes in objectively measured daytime sleepiness were consistently found, but improvements in morbidity, mortality, and quality of life indicators were not adequately assessed. Conclusions:The relevance of sleep apnoea to public health has been exaggerated. The effectiveness of continuous positive airways pressure in improving health outcomes has been poorly evaluated. There is enough evidence suggesting benefit in reducing daytime sleepiness in some patients to warrant large randomised placebo controlled trials of continuous positive airways pressure versus an effective weight reduction programme and other interventions.

The Finnish mass screening program has been effective and its continuation is of utmost importance. In the future more attention should be given to glandular cell atypias in cervical smears. Thus, it might be possible to decrease the incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma.

To compare the effect of organised pap‐smear screening for cervical cancer with that of the spontaneous one on the incidence of invasive cervical cancer, we performed a case‐control study within the catchment area of the Helsinki University Hospital (Helsinki, Finland). The study material consisted of 179 incident cases of invasive cervical cancer and 1,507 population controls. Data on lifetime pap smears before the year of the cancer diagnosis were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire. The questionnaire information was obtained for 82% of the cases and 73% of the controls. The main outcome measure was relative risk of invasive cervical cancer among those with history of organised or spontaneous screening compared with risk among those with no history of screening for cervical cancer, measured as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and computed with logistic regression. Odds ratio of invasive cervical cancer among those who participated in the organised screening programme was 0.38 (CI 0.26–0.56) whereas any lifetime spontaneous pap smear had an OR value of 0.82 (CI 0.53–1.26), in terms of unit risk for those not subjected to any screening and adjusted for age and the other type of the screening activity. Our results indicate that the substantial decrease in the incidence of and mortality due to cervical cancer in Finland is mainly due to the organised mass‐screening. Int. J. Cancer 83:55–58,1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.