Being more physically active and spending fewer hours per day sitting watching TV is linked to a substantially lower risk of developing obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), according to new research published in the European Respiratory Journal [1]. It is the first study to simultaneously evaluate physical activity and sedentary behaviour in relation to OSA risk.
OSA is a condition where breathing stops and starts many times during sleep. It reduces oxygen levels in the blood and common symptoms include snoring, disrupted sleep and feeling excessively tired. Serious complications associated with poorly managed OSA include an increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, irregular heartbeat, and type 2 diabetes. It is estimated [2] that around 1 billion adults aged 30-69 years are affected by mild to severe OSA globally.
The study was led by Tianyi Huang, Assistant Professor and Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA. To examine whether being less physically active and more sedentary increases OSA risk, Professor Huang and colleagues analysed health data from more than 138,000 US men and women who did not have clinically diagnosed OSA at the beginning of the study. By the end of the study follow-up period of 10-18 years, 8,733 participants were reported to have OSA diagnoses.
The researchers accounted for other factors that can impact OSA risk within their analyses, including participants' age, body-mass index (BMI), and whether they smoked or drank alcohol.
