Renata L. Riha

1 Introduction Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) constitutes a major global public health problem with a high and steadily rising prevalence, mainly attributed to its intimate relationship with obesity (Benjafield et al. 2019).

Review papers are essential in a world where the expansion of information and scientific knowledge have become astronomical in most domains [1–3]. As secondary research publications, review papers exist to both summarise and synthesise previously published work in a field, and in the process offer appraisal and critique. Accordingly, a review paper is considered to be of good quality if it is analytical, critical, comprehensive, selective, relevant, synthetic and fully referenced.

Abstract Background In adults and children with intellectual disability (ID), sleep -disordered breathing (SDB) is thought to be common. However, large epidemiological studies are lacking, and there are few studies on optimal methods of investigation and even fewer randomised, controlled intervention trials of treatment. Method Peer-reviewed publications from various databases were examined in line with search terms relevant to ID and SDB spanning the years 200-2024.