Patients with sleep disorders more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, study suggests
Taiwan: Findings from a nationwide population-based cohort study have suggested a strong relationship between sleep disorder (SD) and incident atrial fibrillation (AF). Also, insomnia was found to have a greater impact on AF than other sleep disorders. The study was published in the journal Sleep Medicine.
The effect of sleep disorder, especially sleep apnea on atrial fibrillation is gathering attention. However, other SDs are also known to play an essential part in AF. Chun-Chao Chen, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues, therefore, aimed to examine the effects of other sleep disorders on the risk of atrial fibrillation development.
For this purpose, the researchers investigated the risk of AF in people with SD diagnosis compared with that in age and sex-matched unaffected individuals. The study was conducted using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of individuals diagnosed with SD from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2012. The risk of AF in people with SD and subgroup of SD, relative to that in people without SD was computed using a Cox proportional hazard regression.
The study led to the following findings:
· The sample consisted of 193,288 people with SD, which include 4406 people with sleep apnea, 73,704 people with insomnia, 107,395 people with sleep disturbance, 7,783 people with other SD, and 193,288 matched controls.
· The AF incidences were 1.21-fold higher in the SD cohort, 1.19-fold higher in the sleep apnea cohort, 1.26-fold higher in the insomnia cohort, 1.15-fold higher in the sleep disturbance cohort, and 1.30-fold higher in other SDs, than in the control cohort, after age, sex, and comorbidities were adjusted.
The researchers conclude, "our study indicates a strong relationship between SD and incident AF, and insomnia has a higher impact on AF compared with other SD."
Reference:
Chen CC, Lin CH, Yang TY, Wang TJ, Li SJ, Fang YA, Chen TJ, Tzeng HE, Chiu CC, Hao WR, Lu MY, Liu JC. Association between sleep disorder and atrial fibrillation: A nationwide population-based cohort study. Sleep Med. 2022 Aug;96:50-56. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2022.05.002. Epub 2022 May 10. PMID: 35597072.
