Impact of gender on incident diabetes mellitus in obstructive sleep apnea: a 16-year follow-up.
OBJECTIVE
To address the influence of gender and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on development of diabetes mellitus (DM) in a sleep clinic cohort.


METHODS
A longitudinal observational study.


METHODS
A consecutive middle-aged (30-69 years) sleep clinic cohort from 1991 (n=318; 254 men, 64 women) with eligible baseline characteristics, clinical charts, and information from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry were identified. Ten individuals with DM at baseline and 47 patients who died during the follow-up period were excluded.


METHODS
The remaining 261 subjects were asked to complete a postal questionnaire regarding concomitant diseases including DM, diagnosed by a physician.


RESULTS
In total, 168 patients (64.4%) replied. The incidence of DM was 24.9% in patients with OSA (overnight oxygen desaturations > or =30 in 1991) compared with 10.8% in subjects without OSA (p = 0.020). New-onset DM in men was 19.1% in OSA vs. 11.1% in non-OSA (n.s.), while the corresponding values in women were 50.0% in OSA and 9.5% in non-OSA (p = 0.022). In a multivariate analysis, DM was predicted by OSA in women with an odds ratio (OR) of 11.8, but not by age, body mass index (BMI) at baseline, or weight change at followup. In men, only BMI (OR 1.16) predicted DM.


CONCLUSIONS
The contribution of OSA to DM development seems to be gender-dependent and higher in women than in men.
Celen
Yelda Turgut
YT
Sleep Medicine Unit, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Skaraborg Hospital, Skövde, Sweden.
Hedner
Jan
J
Carlson
Jan
J
Peker
Yüksel
Y
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015984:Causality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology