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. 2024 Aug;28(4):1645-1650.
doi: 10.1007/s11325-024-03052-x. Epub 2024 May 8.

Gender differences in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: a pilot study

Antonio Fabozzi  1 , Federico Pasqualotto  2 , Marianna Laguardia  2 , Pietro Francesco Natuzzi  2 , Rosaria Capone  2 , Alessia Steffanina  2 , Daniela Pellegrino  2 , Federica Olmati  2 , Caterina Antonaglia  3 , Paolo Palange  2
Affiliations

Gender differences in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: a pilot study

Antonio Fabozzi et al. Sleep Breath. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: OSAS is a syndrome that often presents clinically differently between men and women. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical presentation, nocturnal home sleep cardiorespiratory monitoring and therapeutic adherence to CPAP in both sexes to identify the most frequent patterns.

Methods: Data from the first visit, the nocturnal home sleep cardiorespiratory monitoring and follow-up visit of 74 OSA patients were collected. Exclusion criteria included other respiratory and/or neuromuscular diseases (including Obesity hypoventilation syndrome) and other non-respiratory sleep disorders.

Results: Men were older and had a higher supine AHI and ODI compared to women. In addition, BMI and age correlated positively with AHI in males. Women had a higher hypopneas frequency and better therapeutic adherence to CPAP.

Conclusions: Men were associated with a higher AHI when sleeping in the supine position and this may be useful to look for new therapeutic options in combination with or as an alternative to CPAP. BMI correlated positively with AHI in men and this should be considered to stimulate weight loss as the main treatment to reduce the number of apneas/hypopneas, as men also had less therapeutic adherence to CPAP in our study. Females presented a significantly higher frequency of hypopneas than men, as well as a lower number of desaturation events per hour (ODI): these differences in the nocturnal home sleep cardiorespiratory monitoring could reflect different pathophysiological mechanisms of OSAS onset between the two sexes, which should be investigated in future scientific studies.

Keywords: Continuous positive airway pressure; Disorders of excessive somnolence; Obstructive sleep apnea; Polysomnography; Sleep apnea syndromes.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Significantly gender differences about supine AHI and ODI
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Rate of patients using CPAP during follow up
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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