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Elderly Sleep Apnea Sufferers May Live Longer
• Healthy Sleep News • Sep 15, 2008


New research results suggest that sleep apnea – which has often been linked to increased rates of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality – may actually contribute to higher survival rates in the elderly. The findings by Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers were presented last Thursday at the bi-annual European Sleep Research Society Congress in Glasgow, Scotland.

Led by Prof. Peretz Lavie of the Faculty of Medicine, the study was conducted over a 4.5-year period, with researchers comparing mortality rates among elderly subjects diagnosed with sleep apnea to those of the elderly in the general population. Results were divided by to age, sex, and ethnic origin.

When mortality rates of 611 elderly patients with “light or no” sleep apnea, “moderate” sleep apnea, and “severe” sleep apnea were compared with the general population, those suffering from moderate sleep apnea had a mortality rate one-third of that of the general population. And mortality rates for the elderly with no sleep apnea, light sleep apnea and severe sleep apnea were on par with those of the general populace.




“These findings, when combined with new findings in scientific literature of the adaptive influences of intermittent hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in various clinical models, strengthens our hypothesis that sleep apnea activates defense mechanisms among the elderly that provide them with survival advantage,” said Lavie.

Although sleep apnea is more prevalent among the elderly than among the young and middle-aged, the medical implications among the elderly are still not well known.

Affecting 10 percent of men and five percent of women, sleep apnea has been found to constitute a significant risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The findings from many studies – including some conducted at the Technion – show patients with sleep apnea are at a higher risk for mortality, particularly if they are overweight.

The research was conducted in the Lloyd Rigler Laboratory for Sleep Apnea Research at the Technion Faculty of Medicine.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel’s leading science and technology university. Home to the country’s winners of the Nobel Prize in science, it commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in nanotechnology, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials engineering, aerospace and medicine. The majority of the founders and managers of Israel’s high-tech companies are alumni. Based in New York City, the American Technion Society (ATS) is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel, with 22 offices around the country.

Source: American Technion Society

rooster wrote:“These findings, when combined with new findings in scientific literature of the adaptive influences of intermittent hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in various clinical models, strengthens our hypothesis that sleep apnea activates defense mechanisms among the elderly that provide them with survival advantage,” said Lavie.

Mortality in sleep apnoea syndrome: a review of the evidence
P. Lavie

A large number of studies demonstrated a surprising age-related decline in the risk of mortality in sleep apnoea patients. This finding is unexpected as patients with severely disordered breathing in sleep have additional risk factors, such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases, which can be expected to greatly exacerbate their risk of mortality [40] by acting synergistically with the apnoeas. Furthermore, most studies did not show any effect of sleep apnoea on mortality in the elderly. It is possible that the age-related decline in relative mortality reflects methodological weaknesses of the studies, such as referral bias of performing diagnostic sleep recordings in younger sleep patients who were at a greater risk of death than the older patients, or the occurrence of more severe sleep apnoea in younger patients. It is also possible that there are differences in compliance with treatment between older than younger patients. It cannot be excluded, however, that the age decline in relative mortality reflects successful adaptation to the nightly apnoeic events by an as yet unknown mechanism [41]. Further studies are needed to verify this exciting possibility. Whatever the explanation for this observation, it implies that diagnosis and treatment of sleep should be carried out at the youngest age possible. Likewise, further studies are indeed in order to determine the clinical significance of the occurrence of apnoeas in the elderly.


In conclusion, mortality studies of sleep apnoea syndrome have generally shown that severe sleep apnoea constitutes an important mortality risk that can be reduced by proper treatment. Moreover, in view of the higher mortality risks in younger patients, diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome should be carried out at the earliest age possible.

From the New England Journal of Medicine:
Conclusions The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome significantly increases the risk of stroke or death from any cause, and the increase is independent of other risk factors, including hypertension.

birdshell wrote:

You are VERY welcome, Barbara...if in fact, that IS your real name...LOL.

Seriously, though: I don't know if the information in that program was accurate or not, but I am sure that it pre-empted my favorite Saturday PBS shows, i.e., Ask This Old House, , This Old House, America's Test Kitchen, etc. [If their programming IS so great, why do they always have to show these "special" shows during pledge times?]

Karen,
Who thankfully had a wedding to attend this past Saturday

P.S. Jim, I do believe after having taken so MANY statistics classes, figures do not lie. It is rather like the "GIGO" principle for computer programming: garbage in, garbage out. The DESIGN is most of the problem. See? Just like most of our CPAP problems!