Sleep Apnea May Affect the Heart

(July 15, 2010) - People with sleep apnea (Read about "Sleep") should be aware that it may increase their risks of heart problems. Severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) raised the risk of heart failure (Read about "Congestive Heart Failure") for middle-aged and older men - and significantly raised the risk of coronary heart disease (Read about "Coronary Heart Disease") in men up to age 70, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

After adjusting for known heart risk factors (Read about "Heart Risks"), researchers found that men with the most severe OSA faced a 58 percent higher risk of developing heart failure than those without OSA. And those ages 40 to 70 with the most severe OSA had a 68 percent higher risk of developing coronary heart disease than those without OSA.

"The Sleep Heart Health Study is the first to demonstrate prospectively that sleep apnea is associated with an increased incidence of heart failure," said Daniel J. Gottlieb, M.D., M.P.H., lead study author.

"It's also the first large community-based study specifically designed to examine the association of sleep apnea with either coronary heart disease or heart failure. Previous work has focused more narrowly on patients receiving care at sleep clinics."

OSA is common, affecting 24 percent of adult men and 9 percent of adult women, said Gottlieb.

Research from the Sleep Heart Health Study also breaks ground because it included many women, Gottlieb said. However, researchers found no link between OSA and heart problems in women. Women are about half as likely as men to have sleep apnea, making it difficult to detect an apnea-heart disease link. This is an area for further study, he said.

The 1,927 men and 2,495 women were 40 or older and free of heart problems when the study began. Twenty-four percent of the men and 11 percent of the women had at least moderately severe obstructive sleep apnea. Researchers assessed participants' health for a median follow-up of 8.7 years.