The connection between sleep disorders and COVID-19 is becoming more prevalent with more focus being given to the two. Recent research looked at data from 5,400 Cleveland Clinic patients and found that while sleep disordered breathing and sleep related hypoxia do not increase the risk of someone catching COVID-19, it can worsen the clinical prognosis from the disease.
Researchers analysed this data retrospectively and found this strong connection. Utilising data of nearly 360,000 patients, 5,400 of which had an available sleep study record. These sleep study findings were looked at with COVID-19 diagnosis while co-morbidities such as obesity, heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and smoking were accounted for.
The findings of this research set the stage for further studies to identify effective ways to prepare and treat this subgroup of people. If someone has been diagnosed with a sleep or breathing disorder then test positive for COVID-19, more medical treatment will need to be allotted to them due to the potently worse presentation of COVID-19 symptoms. This would allow for better risk stratification strategies to be implemented.
Article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211110131628.htm
Journal: Cinthya Pena Orbea, Lu Wang, Vaishal Shah, Lara Jehi, Alex Milinovich, Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer, Mina K. Chung, Saif Mashaqi, Loutfi Aboussouan, Kelsey Seidel, Reena Mehra. Association of Sleep-Related Hypoxia With Risk of COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Mortality in a Large Integrated Health System. JAMA Network Open, 2021; 4 (11): e2134241 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.34241
