Abstract
The study identifies how current voice, cough, and daytime breathing problems affect mental and physical quality of life in obstructive sleep apnea patients, as well as how the combination of voice, cough, and diurnal dyspnea impacts quality of life.
Highlights
The negative impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on quality of life (QOL) is well established and occurs across the OSA severity spectrum [1]
We extend our research to assess how chronic cough and diurnal dyspnea affect mental and physical QOL in OSA, as well as how the combination of voice, cough, and diurnal dyspnea impacts QOL
Experiencing diurnal dyspnea based on the Dyspnea Index was significantly greater in women and among those with lower education and who did not use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) nightly
Summary
The negative impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on quality of life (QOL) is well established and occurs across the OSA severity spectrum [1]. Recent research has established that OSA often presents with evidence of potential upper airway related problems involving longstanding voice problems, chronic refractory cough, and diurnal dyspnea, among women [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. The origin of such problems in OSA is likely multifactorial [8,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23], it has been postulated that this constellation of voice, cough, and diurnal dyspnea might reflect upper airway inflammation (a common feature of OSA) and/or possible laryngeal hypersensitivity and related laryngeal motor dysfunction [5,11,22,23]. Diurnal dyspnea associated with chronic diseases such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) negatively associates with QOL [35,36]
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