Citation

Lin CL, Su MC, Lin CP, Sun CA, Chung CH, Chien WC. J. Nurs. Scholarsh. 2022; 54(1): 38-45.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing)

DOI

10.1111/jnu.12697

PMID

34396682

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) diagnosis and diverse types of injuries.
DESIGN: This population-based retrospective cohort study compared records from 2000 to 2013 in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database.
METHODS: 3025 patients identified with OSA were compared against the control cohort consisting of 12,100 age- and sex-matched patients. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to estimate the effects of OSA on injury risk.
FINDINGS: Patients with OSA exhibited a significantly higher overall incidence of injury of 2599 per 100,000 person-years compared to the control cohort (2248 per 100,000 person-years). After the confounding factors were considered, subjects with OSA showed a higher risk of injury than subjects in the control group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.64-1.93). The risk of unintentional injury (traffic, poisoning, falls) and intentional injury (suicide) in the group of patients with OSA was higher than that in the controls.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study strongly supports the conclusion that adults with OSA are at increased risk of injury.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The present results indicate the significance of OSA as a predictor of injury risk, which will provide valuable information for clinical practice and injury prevention.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Risk Factors; Adult; Incidence; injury; Retrospective Studies; Cohort Studies; Proportional Hazards Models; Taiwan; intentional injury; unintentional injury; obstructive sleep apnea; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive; retrospective cohort study