Obstructive sleep apnea and injury events in Taiwanese adults: A retrospective cohort study

• Published in: Journal of nursing scholarship 2022-01, Vol.54 (1), p.38-45
• Main Authors: Lin, Chia‐Ling, Su, Mei‐Chen, Lin, Chun‐Ping, Sun, Chien‐An, Chung, Chi‐Hsiang, Chien, Wu‐Chien
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidents; Adult; Adults; Age; Cardiovascular disease; Clinical medicine; Codes; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Confounding factors; Diabetes; Health insurance; Humans; Hypertension; Incidence; Injuries; injury; intentional injury; Medical diagnosis; National health insurance; Obstructive sleep apnea; Poisoning; Population; Proportional Hazards Models; retrospective cohort study; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Sleep apnea; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive - diagnosis; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive - epidemiology; Suicide; Suicides & suicide attempts; Taiwan - epidemiology; unintentional injury; Urbanization
• ISSN: 1527-6546; 1547-5069
• DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12697

Purpose The aim of this study was to examine the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) diagnosis and diverse types of injuries. Design This population‐based retrospective cohort study compared records from 2000 to 2013 in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Methods 3025 patients identified with OSA were compared against the control cohort consisting of 12,100 age‐ and sex‐matched patients. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to estimate the effects of OSA on injury risk. Findings Patients with OSA exhibited a significantly higher overall incidence of injury of 2599 per 100,000 person‐years compared to the control cohort (2248 per 100,000 person‐years). After the confounding factors were considered, subjects with OSA showed a higher risk of injury than subjects in the control group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.64–1.93). The risk of unintentional injury (traffic, poisoning, falls) and intentional injury (suicide) in the group of patients with OSA was higher than that in the controls. Conclusions Our study strongly supports the conclusion that adults with OSA are at increased risk of injury. Clinical relevance The present results indicate the significance of OSA as a predictor of injury risk, which will provide valuable information for clinical practice and injury prevention.