Hierarchy of Comorbidity Indicators for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract

To the Editor: Epidemiologic studies of the comorbidities of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have produced a list of many comorbidities, some more prevalent than others. This correspondence posits that the comorbidities, with a prevalence in the OSA population that is signifi cantly higher than their prevalence in the general population are the strongest indicators of OSA, even though these may not be the most prevalent in the OSA population. The indicator strengths of 11 OSA comorbidities are computed by forming the ratio of each one’s prevalence in the OSA population to its prevalence in the general population. Each OSA comorbidity and its prevalence were selected from an Australian study. 1 This study included . 60,000 hospital patients who had been diagnosed with OSA. These patients were the ones diagnosed with OSA from . 1.5 million randomly selected hospital records in New South Wales. The results of the computations are shown in Table 1 , 2 - 5 in which the comorbidities are listed in descending order of OSA indicator strength. The sources for the estimated prevalence in the United States of each comorbidity are referred to in the table. The recent publication 1 of the data for the prevalence of each