Association Between Eating Habits and Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Population-Based Study

Yan Du; Xueru Duan; Murui Zheng; Wenjing Zhao; Jun Huang; Lixian Lao; Fan Weng; Dan-Er Lin; Zhenxiao Yang; Haiyi Li; Xudong Liu; Hai Deng

doi:10.2147/NSS.S325494

Association Between Eating Habits and Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Population-Based Study

Nat Sci Sleep. 2021 Oct 9:13:1783-1795. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S325494. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yan Du^#¹, Xueru Duan^#¹, Murui Zheng^#², Wenjing Zhao^#³, Jun Huang⁴, Lixian Lao⁵, Fan Weng⁶, Dan-Er Lin⁷, Zhenxiao Yang¹, Haiyi Li¹, Xudong Liu¹, Hai Deng⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Geriatrics, Institute of Geriatrics, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Science, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Science, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Guangzhou Yuexiu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁷ Guangzhou Baiyun District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: The effect of dietary factors on OSA remains unclear. This study was to investigate the association of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with individual and overall effects of eating habits among adult Chinese.

Methods: A total of 9733 participants were selected from the baseline survey of the Guangzhou Heart Study. OSA was ascertained by Berlin Questionnaire. Food consumption was collected using a food frequency questionnaire, and eating patterns were extracted by principal component analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated by the logistic regression model.

Results: After adjustment for confounders, fried food intake with ≥1/week was associated with an increased risk of OSA (OR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.37-2.27), while fruit consumption of ≥1/day was associated with a 26% reduced risk of OSA (OR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.62-0.88). Three eating patterns were defined and labeled as pattern I, II, and III. Eating pattern III which had higher factor loadings of animal innards, fried food, salted food, carbonate, and non-carbonated beverages was associated with an increased risk of OSA (OR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.09-1.55) when comparing the highest with the lowest tertile of pattern score, after adjusting for confounders; every 1-unit increment of pattern III score was associated with an increased risk of OSA (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.04-1.14). Neither pattern I nor pattern II was observed to be associated with OSA risk.

Conclusion: A higher frequency intake of fruits was associated with a reduced OSA risk and a diet with higher levels of consumption of animal innards, fried food, salted food, carbonated beverages, and non-carbonated beverages may increase the risk of OSA.

Keywords: diet; eating habits; fried food; fruits; obstructive sleep apnea.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Guangdong Provincial Key R&D Program (No.2019B020230004), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1312502, No. 2018YFE0208000), the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou City (No.202102080404), and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2019A1515011599). The founder had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this manuscript.