People with sleep disorders ‘more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID’

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

People who suffer from certain sleeping disorders are up to a third more likely to end up in hospital or even die if they catch COVID, warns new research.

Patients with sleep-disordered breathing and sleep-related hypoxia are at a 31 percent increased risk of hospitalization or dying from COVID-19, according to the study.

The American research team analyzed data from 5,400 patients.

The findings showed that while patients with sleep-disordered breathing and sleep-related hypoxia do not have increased risk of developing COVID-19, they have a worse clinical prognosis from the disease.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the disease remains highly variable from patient to patient, it is critical to improve our ability to predict who will have more severe illness so that we can appropriately allocate resources," said study leader Dr. Reena Mehra, director of Sleep Disorder Research at Cleveland Clinic.

“This study improved our understanding of the association between sleep disorders and the risk for adverse COVID-19 outcomes. It suggests biomarkers of inflammation may mediate this relationship.”

The team used Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 research registry, which includes data from more than 350,000 patients tested for the virus, of which 5,400 had an available sleep study record.

Sleep study findings and COVID-19 positivity were assessed along with disease severity. The team also accounted for factors including obesity, heart and lung disease, cancer and smoking.

The researchers said that their findings, published in JAMA Network Open, set the stage for additional studies to identify whether early effective treatments such as positive airway pressure (PAP) or oxygen administration can improve COVID-19 outcomes.

“Our findings have significant implications as decreased hospitalizations and mortality could reduce the strain on healthcare systems," said study first author Dr. Cinthya Pena Orbea, of Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Center.

“If indeed sleep-related hypoxia translates to worse COVID-19 outcomes, risk stratification strategies should be implemented to prioritize early allocation of Covid-19 therapy to this subgroup of patients.”