Compared to Individuals with Mild to Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Individuals with Severe OSA Had Higher BMI and Respiratory-Disturbance Scores

Leeba Rezaie; Soroush Maazinezhad; Donald J Fogelberg; Habibolah Khazaie; Dena Sadeghi-Bahmani; Serge Brand

doi:10.3390/life11050368

Compared to Individuals with Mild to Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Individuals with Severe OSA Had Higher BMI and Respiratory-Disturbance Scores

Life (Basel). 2021 Apr 21;11(5):368. doi: 10.3390/life11050368.

Authors

Leeba Rezaie¹, Soroush Maazinezhad^{1

2}, Donald J Fogelberg³, Habibolah Khazaie¹, Dena Sadeghi-Bahmani^{1

4

5

6}, Serge Brand^{1

5

7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 67146, Iran.
² School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 67146, Iran.
³ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
⁴ Departments of Physical Therapy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35209, USA.
⁵ Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders (ZASS), Psychiatric University Hospital Basel, 4002 Basel, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
⁷ Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 67146, Iran.
⁸ School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 25529, Iran.
⁹ Division of Sport Science and Psychosocial Health, Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, 4052 Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

Objective: Individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at increased risk to suffer from further somatic and sleep-related complaints. To assess OSA, demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep parameters are taken into consideration, but often separately. Here, we entered demographic, anthropometric, subjective, and objective sleep- and breathing-related dimensions in one model.

Methods: We reviewed the demographic, anthropometric, subjective and objective sleep- and breathing-related data, and polysomnographic records of 251 individuals with diagnosed OSA. OSA was considered as a continuous and as categorical variable (mild, moderate, and severe OSA). A series of correlational computations, X²-tests, F-tests, and a multiple regression model were performed to investigate which demographic, anthropometric, and subjective and objective sleep dimensions were associated with and predicted dimensions of OSA.

Results: Higher apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) scores were associated with higher BMI, higher daytime sleepiness, a higher respiratory disturbance index, and higher snoring. Compared to individuals with mild to moderate OSA, individuals with severe OSA had a higher BMI, a higher respiratory disturbance index (RDI) and a higher snoring index, while subjective sleep quality and daytime sleepiness did not differ. Results from the multiple regression analysis showed that an objectively shorter sleep duration, more N2 sleep, and a higher RDI predicted AHI scores.

Conclusion: The pattern of results suggests that blending demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep- and breathing-related data enabled more effective discrimination of individuals at higher risk for OSA. The results are of practical and clinical importance: demographic, anthropometric, and breathing-related issues derived from self-rating scales provide a quick and reliable identification of individuals at risk of OSA; objective assessments provide further certainty and reliability.

Keywords: anthropometry; obstructive sleep apnea; polysomnography; severity.