Rising temperatures may increase severity of obstructive sleep apnea: Study

A new large study on Sunday claimed that rising temperatures increase the severity of obstructive sleep apnea OSAPublished at the lsquoATS 2025 International Conferencersquo the study also found that under the most likely climate change scenarios the societal burden of OSA is expected to double in most countries over the next 75 yearsIn addition to highlighting the critical importance of limiting global warming the findings also emphasise the immediate need for strategies to alleviate the health and economic impacts of OSA as it becomes more common and severe researchers saidldquoThis study really highlights the societal burden associated with the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperaturesrdquo said Bastien Lechat a senior research fellow at FHMRI Sleep Health at Flinders UniversityPrevious crosssectional studies identified a link between ambient temperature and OSA severity However this is the first to explain and describe that connection in detailFor the study researchers analysed a consumer database of more than 116000 worldwide users of an undermattress sensor validated to estimate OSA severityThe dataset included around 500 repeat measurements per user Researchers then analysed this data against 24hour ambient temperatures extracted from climate modelsOverall higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent increased likelihood of a sleeper experiencing OSA on a given nightHowever these findings varied by region with people in European countries seeing higher rates of OSA when temperatures rise than those in Australia and the United StatesldquoWe were surprised by the magnitude of the association between ambient temperature and OSA severityrdquo Dr Lechat notedResearchers then sought to estimate how burdensome the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperature is to society in terms of wellbeing and economic lossThey conducted modelling including disabilityadjustedlifeyears productivity losses and health economics to estimate the OSA burden under several climate scenariosThey found that any scenario that involved temperatures rising 2 degrees Celsius or higher would result in a 15fold to 3fold increase to the OSA burden by the year 2100 They estimated that climate change has already increased the OSA burden by 50 percent to 100 percent since the year 2000In addition to providing further evidence of the major threat of climate change to human health and wellbeing Dr Lechat said the study highlighted the importance of developing effective interventions to diagnose and manage OSAldquoThe high prevalence undiagnosed and untreated OSA amplifies the effect of global warming on the societal burden associated with OSArdquo he said ldquoHigher rates of diagnosis and treatment is likely to reduce the health and productivity burden due to rising temperature and increased OSA prevalencerdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params