TOPLINE:
Patients with psoriasis had a 1.77-fold increased risk of having obstructive sleep apnea, in a study comparing patients with psoriasis with controls.
METHODOLOGY:
Prior studies have established a link between psoriasis and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but some have suggested that confounders may drive the association.
Using a case-control design, researchers analyzed data from 156,707 participants in the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research program: 5140 with psoriasis and 151,567 controls.
They used Pearson's x 2 test to compare the prevalence of OSA among cases and controls, logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) in multivariable analysis, and two-sided t-tests to evaluate the significance between continuous variables.
TAKEAWAY:
Compared with controls, patients with psoriasis were older (a mean of 62.4 vs 57.3 years, respectively), more likely to be White (86.1% vs 70.6%), reported higher annual household incomes (59.9% vs 52.6%), and were more likely to smoke (48.2% vs 43.4%).
The rate of OSA was significantly higher among patients with psoriasis compared with controls (29.3% vs 17.1%; P < .001).
On unadjusted multivariable logistic regression controlling for age, gender, and race, psoriasis was significantly associated with OSA (OR, 1.77, 95% CI, 1.66 - 1.89; P < .001).
Psoriasis was also significantly associated with OSA in the adjusted model controlling for age, gender, race, BMI, and smoking status (OR, 1.66, 95% CI, 1.55 - 1.77;
