A new research shows that sleep apnea is tied to increased risk of diabetes.
For the study, the researchers examined 8,678 adults with symptoms of suspected Obstructive Sleep Apnea without diabetes at baseline. Researchers observed them from 1994 to 2010 and followed through in May 2011 using provincial health administrative data to examine the occurrence of diabetes.
Researchers measured the sleep apnea through the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) which indicates severity based on the number of apneas (complete cessation of airflow) and hypopneas (partial cessation of airflow) per hour of sleep. Patients were classified as not having OSA (AHI < 5), or having mild (AHI 5-14.9), moderate (AHI 15-30) or severe (AHI>30) OSA.
During follow-up, 1,017 (11.7 percent) patients developed diabetes. Patients with an AHI>30 had a 30 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than those with an AHI <5. Patients with mild or moderate OSA had 23 percent more chances of developing diabetes.
"Our study, with a larger sample size and a median follow-up of 67 months was able to address some of the limitations of earlier studies on the connection between OSA and diabetes," said lead author Tetyana Kendzerska, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto. "We found that among patients with OSA, the initial severity of the disease predicted the subsequent risk for incident diabetes," Kendzerska said in a press release
Researchers said that the study had a few limitations such as lack of data on some potential confounders, including family history of diabetes and race, and the possible misclassification of some subjects due to the limitations of the administrative health data used.
"The OSA-related predictors of increased diabetes risk that we found in our study may allow for early preventative interventions in these patients," said Dr Kendzerska.
The findings were published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
