The prevalence of narcolepsy among Chinese in Hong Kong

Abstract Narcolepsy is a lifelong, crippling sleep disorder. Although the discovery of the hypocretin system has been a breakthough in genetics, the epidemiological aspects of narcolepsy remain elusive. Ethnic predisposition was suggested to partially account for the 2,500‐fold difference in the reported prevalence rates of narcolepsy between Japanese (0.59%) and Israeli Jews (0.00023%). We carried out a general population study, conducting a random telephone survey with a structured questionnaire, which included a validated screening instrument (a Chinese version of the Ullanlinna Narcolepsy Scale). It was followed by clinical‐polysomnographic‐HLA confirmation of the subjects determined to be positive for narcolepsy based on the questionnaire. Of 9,851 subjects interviewed, 28 subjects (0.28%, 58% female) were screened positive. Ninety percent had a second detailed interview, 64% had HLA typing, and over half of them had a sleep assessment. Only three subjects were found to have genuine narcolepsy. The most common nonnarcolepsy diagnoses were sleep apnea syndrome and sleep‐wake schedule disorder. The prevalence rate of narcolepsy in Southern (Hong Kong) Chinese was found to be 0.034% (95% confidence interval = 0.010–0.117%). All available narcoleptic subjects were HLA DRB1‐1501 positive and 50% were DQB1‐0602 positive. The prevalence rate of narcolepsy among Chinese is comparable to the rates for other populations in studies with stringent epidemiological designs, suggesting that major cross‐ethnic differences in the prevalence rates of narcolepsy previously reported likely resulted from methodological limitations.