According to a new study, sleep apnea may cause more health problems for women than for men. The differences in health risks for this condition between men and women had not been explored before, although it is known that sleep apnea is linked to heart disease in men.
Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person has pauses in their breathing or breathes too shallowly during their sleep. The pauses in breathing can be several seconds or longer. It is chronic and it disrupts sleep, making you feel drowsy during the daytime. In obstructive sleep apnea, the airway collapses or becomes blocked during sleep, causing the shallow breathing or pauses. Often, the person with sleep apnea is a snorer or emits occasional loud snores or choking sounds while they sleep.
For the current study, researchers measured sleep quality in 737 men and 879 women who had no cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. The participants were tested for troponin T, a protein that can be released into the bloodstream if the heart is damaged, and whose presence in otherwise healthy people indicates an increased risk for heart disease. The researchers then followed the participants for 14 years and kept track of incidents of coronary artery disease, heart failure, or death from cardiovascular disease or other causes.
Obstructive sleep apnea was independently associated with increased troponin T, heart failure, and death in women, but not in men. Sleep apnea was also associated with an enlarged heart, another risk factor for cardiovascular disease, in women but not men.
Sleep apnea is more common in people who are overweight and who have other risks for heart disease. However, this association between sleep apnea and a greater risk of heart disease was seen even after other factors were accounted for.
The study was published in the journal Circulation.