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 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
Organization. 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.
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The new study and past research suggest there is a direct link
between obstructive sleep apnea and diabetes, but ironclad evidence
that it's behind a significant portion of diabetes cases does not
yet exist, said Peppard, who was not part of the new study
“These findings underscore the need to prevent sleep apnea and
screen for sleep apnea in patients particularly at risk for
developing diabetes – e.g., overweight and physically inactive
people,” he told Reuters Health by email. “Behaviors such as healthy
weight maintenance and reducing time in sedentary activities would
simultaneously reduce the risk (of) developing sleep apnea and
diabetes.”
People with diabetes should also be screened for sleep apnea, and
people with sleep apnea should be screened for diabetes, said Dr.
Rashmi Nisha Aurora, a sleep medicine expert at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
“Healthcare providers need to be aware of the association and
educate their patients and the community," Aurora told Reuters
Health by email.
Ongoing research is still investigating whether treating sleep apnea
reduces diabetes risk, said Aurora, who was also not involved in the
study.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ee1qT5 Sleep Medicine, online September 29,
2016.
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