medwireNews: People with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk for developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), researchers have reported at the virtual 57th EASD Annual Meeting.
The study involved 34,147 UK residents with type 1 diabetes, identified in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database, who were matched by age, sex, primary care provider, and BMI to 129,500 people who had neither type 1 nor type 2 diabetes.
During follow-up of around 5 years, OSA occurred at a rate of 10.4 cases per 10,000 person–years in people with type 1 diabetes versus 6.1 cases per 10,000 person–years in people without.
This equated to a significant hazard ratio of 1.71 for OSA in people with type 1 diabetes, which changed only minimally, to 1.67, after adjustment for factors including age, sex, smoking status, BMI, and cardiovascular disease.
Presenter Ziyad Alshehri (University of Birmingham, UK) noted that OSA is a well-known complication of type 2 diabetes, but that their study is the first longitudinal analysis to examine the issue in people with type 1 diabetes.
Among these people, the risk for developing OSA was highest in those who were male, older, overweight or obese, had depression or atrial fibrillation, or used lipid-lowering or antihypertensive medications.
Clinicians should therefore be aware of the risk for OSA in patients with this profile, the presenter concluded.
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EASD Annual Meeting; Sept 27–Oct 1, 2021