It can be caused by body mass index (BMI). sleep apnea (SA) Snoring was associated with increased risk of hypertension (HTN) and coronary artery disease (CAD). European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Researchers, on the other hand, did not observe evidence that cardiovascular disease (CVD) SA or snoring is causally related.
Previous observational studies have identified an association between SA and CVD, but it remains unclear whether the association is causal, said first author Jiao Wang, Ph.D., Department of Public Health. According to Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues, .
Wang et al. conducted a two-way, two-sample Mendelian randomized study that included a possible causal relationship between SA or snoring and CVD. Multivariate Mendelian randomization was used to assess the direct effect of SA on CVD after adjusting for BMI.
The cohort included 523,366 participants, of whom 25,008 had SA-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms and 172,050 had snoring-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms. CVD results of interest are HTN, atrial fibrillation (AF), CAD, stroke, heart failure (HF).
After the research team modified multiple tests, an inverse variance-weighted average showed that SA and snoring increased risk HTN (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.05; OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.03-1.07) and CAD (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.19-1.67; OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.26-2.07), false discovery rate (FDR) < .05. These associations, however, were lower than BMI (.06BMI adjusted<.20), a noted researcher.
Results showed that snoring and SA were not associated with AF, HF, or stroke. According to the authors, HTN was associated with an increased risk of his SA (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.04-2.25), but this association did not pass multiple comparisons (FDR>.05).
Wang et al. pointed out that further studies are needed to clarify the role of obesity in the effects of SA and snoring on cardiovascular disease.
reference: Wang J, Campos AI, Rentería ME, Xu L. The causality of sleep apnea, snoring due to cardiovascular disease, and the role of body mass index: a two-sample Mendelian randomized study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published online on January 5, 2023. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwad005
