Younger adults with sleep apnea experience higher pain intensity: Study
USA: Young adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are more likely to report moderate to severe pain intensity compared to those without OSA, suggests a recent study in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
"Due to high prevalence of chronic pain in younger adults, the results of the study highlights the need for understanding the impact of OSA treatment and diagnosis on pain intensity," wrote the authors.
Previous studies on the association of OSA and pain intensity have examined older patients, there arises a need for understanding the relationship between OSA and pain intensity in younger adults. Keeping this in mind, Wardah Athar, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues examined whether young adults with diagnosed OSA are more likely to report higher pain intensity compared with those without OSA.
For the purpose, the researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a cohort study of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn veterans who had at least one visit to a Veterans Health Administration primary care clinic between 2001 and 2014. The identification of OSA was done using one inpatient or two outpatient International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes from electronic medical records. Average pain intensity was categorized as no pain/mild and moderate/severe.
Key findings of the study include:
- 858,226 young adults (mean age 30 yr) were identified, of whom 10.6% had a diagnosis of OSA and 27.8% reported moderate/severe pain for the 12-month average.
- With young adults without OSA, those with OSA were more likely to report moderate/severe pain intensity (adjusted odds ratio, 1.09) even after controlling for covariates.
"We found that young adults with OSA are more likely to report moderate/severe pain. Because of the high prevalence of chronic pain in younger adults, this study highlights the need to understand the impact of OSA diagnosis and treatment on pain intensity. Future work is needed to determine the role of effective OSA treatment on pain intensity over time in these young adults," concluded the authors.
The study, "Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Pain Intensity in Young Adults," is published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
DOI: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201910-750OC
