Obstructive sleep apnea is linked with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research showed. The findings support recommendations from the International Diabetes Federation that patients with one condition be screened for the other, too, the research teams notes in the journal Sleep Medicine.
Sleep apnea occurs when a person's airway becomes partially or completely blocked during sleep, and as a result, breathing intermittently stops and starts. About 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women have moderate to severe undiagnozed sleep apnea, the researchers say.
"Over the last two decades, evidence has been accruing that sleep apnea may be associated with insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and type 2 diabetes," study leader Mako Nagayoshi of Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Science in Japan told Reuters Health by email.
Past studies tying sleep apnea to diabetes were limited by a small number of participants and other factors, Nagayoshi and colleagues say.
For the new study, they used data from 1,453 participants with an average age of 63. All participants underwent in-home sleep studies and did not have diabetes when the research began.
Based on the sleep studies, the researchers categorized the participants as being normal sleepers or having mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea.
After roughly 13 years, 285 people developed type 2 diabetes. Those with severe obstructive sleep apnea at the start of the study were about 70 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those classified as normal. The increased risk remained even when the researchers only included people who were obese.
About one in 10 adults have diabetes, according to the World Health Organisation. Most have type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body can't make or process enough of the hormone insulin. Obesity increases the risk of both sleep apnea and diabetes, said Paul E. Peppard, a sleep disorder researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. "These findings underscore the need to prevent sleep apnea and screen for sleep apnea in patients particularly at risk for developing diabetes - eg, overweight and physically inactive people," he told Reuters Health by email.