Undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea increases risk of hospitalization among a racially diverse group of older adults with co-morbid cardiovascular disease
- S-Med
- Aug 28
- 1 min read
In this large, nationally representative study of Medicare beneficiaries with CVD, undiagnosed OSA was associated with a significantly increased risk of both hospitalization and 30-day hospital readmission. This finding is consistent with and builds upon prior work suggesting that undiagnosed OSA is associated with increased health care use expanding these findings to older adults with co-morbid CVD. This population is recognized as vulnerable and already at higher risk of subsequent cardiovascular events and hospitalization. Further, not only were beneficiaries with undiagnosed OSA at higher risk of hospitalization relative to those without OSA, they were also more than twice as likely to experience 4 or more hospitalizations during a single year. From a health system perspective, the high level of hospitalizations observed in this study represents a heavy clinical, financial, and health system burden. From the patient’s perspective, repeated hospitalizations also represent a major impediment to quality of life. Notably, while a significant association between undiagnosed OSA and hospitalization was observed among both Black and White beneficiaries with co-morbid CVD, the association between undiagnosed OSA and 30-day hospital readmission was present among White beneficiaries only. In this study and consistent with prior literature, Black beneficiaries with co-morbid CVD were more likely to be hospitalized, regardless of OSA status. In our study, 25.5% of Black beneficiaries without OSA were hospitalized compared to only 21.7% of White beneficiaries without OSA. Increased risk of hospitalization among Black beneficiaries may be related to greater severity of CVD or lack of access to adequate preventative care. Nonetheless, higher overall risk of hospitalization, especially among those hospitalized previously, may have mitigated the impact of undiagnosed OSA.
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