Effect of high-risk Obstructive sleep apnea on clinical outcomes in adults with Coronavirus Disease 2019: a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study

Abstract

Rationale: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may contribute to poor outcomes in adults with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective: to determine the effect of OSA on clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Methods: the current prospective observational study was conducted in three hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey from March 10 to June 22, 2020. The participants were categorized as modified high-risk (mHR), or low-risk (mLR)-OSA according to a modified version of the Berlin questionnaire. Snoring patterns (intensity and/or frequency), breathing pauses and morning/daytime sleepiness, without taking obesity and hypertension into account, were used in the regression models. Results: the primary outcome was clinical improvement defined as a decline of 2 categories from admission on a 7-category ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes included worsening (increase of 1 category), need for hospitalization, supplemental oxygen and intensive care. In total, 320 eligible patients were enrolled. According to the modified scoring, 70 (21.9%) had mHR-OSA. Among 242 patients requiring hospitalization, clinical improvement within 2 weeks occurred in 75.4 % of the mHR-OSA group compared to 88.4 % of the modified low-risk (mLR-OSA) group (P = 0.014). In multivariate regression analyses, mHR-OSA (adjusted OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.19-0.92) predicted the delayed clinical improvement. In the entire study population (n=320), mHR-OSA was associated with clinical worsening and need for supplemental oxygen. Snoring patterns, especially louder snoring, were significantly predicted delayed clinical improvement, worsening, need for hospitalization, supplemental oxygen, and intensive care. Conclusions: adults with mHR-OSA in our Covid-19 cohort had poorer clinical outcomes than those with mLR OSA independent of age, sex and comorbidities.