Association between severe obstructive sleep apnea and incident arterial hypertension in the older people population

ObjectivesThe impact of sleep-related breathing disorders on the incidence of arterial hypertension (AHT) in the older adults is not well-established. The aim of our study was to test the link between severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the occurrence of hypertension in older subjects after 3 years.Methods372 normotensive subjects with a mean age of 68.2 years were included in our longitudinal study. All participants had a ventilatory polygraphic recording and an ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring at baseline and after 3 years. Severe OSA was defined by an apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) of ⩾30 per hour. A new onset of hypertension was defined according to a mean 24-hour value >140 mmHg for systolic BP and >85 mmHg for diastolic BP or the use of antihypertensive medication.ResultsThe baseline factors significantly associated with an increased risk for new-onset hypertension were male gender, obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidemia, and OSA. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that an AHI ⩾ 30 per hour was independently associated with incident hypertension after 3 years (P = .02; odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–2.8).ConclusionsThe presence of severe OSA is associated with new-onset AHT in normotensive elderly (mean age, 68.2 y) subjects.