Dados do Trabalho

Título

Are public health recommendations effective? Association between physical activity and obstructive sleep apnea in adults and older adults

Introdução

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent breathing disorder that affects approximately 1 billion people worldwide. OSA is characterized by recurrent episodes of partial or complete obstruction of the upper airway, leading to intermittent hypoxia, hypercapnia, and disrupted sleep. Physical activity (PA) is widely recommended in public health guidelines as a non-pharmacological intervention to improve overall health outcomes, including sleep quality. However, the effectiveness of these recommendations in reducing the prevalence and severity of OSA remains underexplored.

Objetivo

To assess the impact of adherence to PA recommendations on apnea/hypopnea (AHI) and oxygen desaturation (ODI) indices and to examine the association between PA and the severity of OSA.

Métodos

The data for this study was collected from a randomized clinical trial that was registered in the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (RBR-9hk6pgz) and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (CAAE: 60046022.5.0000.0118). One hundred eleven individuals with a mean age of 60.2 years participated in this cross-sectional study. The inclusion criteria were individuals aged 18 years or older who were not currently receiving treatment for OSA. Home polysomnography type III was used to assess sleep apnea and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to measure adherence to PA recommendations (≥150 min of moderate PA or ≥75 min of vigorous PA per week). To compare the means of AHI and ODI with adherence to PA recommendations, we used an independent t-test. Additionally, a multinomial regression analysis was conducted to explore the association between PA and OSA severity.

Resultados

Most participants were women (57.7%), aged 60 years or older (52.7%), were overweight or obese class I (66.0%), and did not adhere to PA recommendations (73.0%). The prevalence of OSA was 82.9%, with 31.5% classified as mild, 38.1% as moderate, and 30.4% as severe. Participants who adhered to PA recommendations had lower AHI (16.8 vs 25.7; p=0.023) and ODI scores (8.9 vs 16.2; p=0.023) compared to their peers. When examining the association, participants who followed PA recommendations had an 83% lower chance of having severe OSA than their peers, regardless of age (95% CI: 0.03-0.96).

Conclusões

The results indicate that following public health recommendations related to PA is crucial in the context of OSA and can complement primary treatments.

Palavras -chave

Obstructive sleep apnea, physical activity, public health practices, polysomnography.