Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Obesity Are Associated with Hypertension in a Particular Pattern: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity can increase the risk of hypertension, but the combined effects of these two conditions on hypertension are not yet known. We collected the basic characteristics, sleep parameters, and glucose levels of subjects with a polysomnography test and divided them into four groups, according to whether they had severe OSA and obesity or not. The main effects of severe OSA and obesity and the interactions of the two on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels were detected using analysis of covariance. The association between obesity and severe OSA and abnormal blood pressure and their combined effects were detected with logistic regression. In total, 686 subjects were included. After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, the strong main effects of obesity and severe OSA were detected in the SBP and DBP levels, with no combined effects from the two conditions on SBP or DBP. Obesity was independently associated with the presence of hyper-systolic blood pressure (hyper-SBP) and hypertension, and severe OSA was independently associated with the presence of hyper diastolic blood pressure (hyper-DBP) and hypertension. No effects of the interaction between severe OSA and obesity on the presence of abnormal blood pressure were observed. Both severe OSA and obesity were associated with hypertension, while obesity was closely associated with hyper-SBP, and severe OSA was associated with hyper-DBP. No effects of the interaction between these two on hypertension were observed.