Abstract
BackgroundThere is still controversy regarding the association between primary headaches and obstructive sleep apnea. We explored the relationship between tension-type headache (TTH) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using a large nationwide population-based data set in Taiwan.MethodsWe identified 4759 patients diagnosed with OSA from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, based on polysomnography, as the OSA group. We then randomly selected 19036 subjects without OSA, matched by sex and age, to serve as the non-OSA group. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model with matching for age and sex was used to assess the possible associations between TTH and OSA among the patients.ResultsThe prevalence of TTH was 10.2% among OSA patients and 7.7% among non-OSA patients (p < 0.001). The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model revealed patients with OSA were more likely to have TTH (hazard ratio, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.06–1.31) (p = 0.003) than patients in the non-OSA group.ConclusionPatients with OSA had a higher likelihood of developing TTH than patients in the non-OSA group. Further studies of physiological patterns between OSA and TTH are needed to confirm the study findings.
Highlights
There is still controversy regarding the association between primary headaches and obstructive sleep apnea
A typical measurement of sleep apnea is the apnea-hypopnea index. This is an average that represents the combined number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea that occur per hour of sleep, which is calculated from the results of overnight polysomnography
The study used data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000), which was created by the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and contained all the original claims data for one million individuals randomly sampled from the 2000 Registry of Beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)
Summary
There is still controversy regarding the association between primary headaches and obstructive sleep apnea. We explored the relationship between tension-type headache (TTH) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using a large nationwide population-based data set in Taiwan. Repeated episodes of apnea or hypopnea caused by upper airway blockage during sleep characterize OSA. A typical measurement of sleep apnea is the apnea-hypopnea index. This is an average that represents the combined number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea that occur per hour of sleep, which is calculated from the results of overnight polysomnography. Obstructive sleep apnea is receiving increased attention as an important cause of medical morbidity, including excessive daytime
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