People with certain sleep disorders have more severe outcomes from COVID-19, including a 31 percent higher rate of hospitalization and mortality, according to a new Cleveland Clinic study published in JAMA Network Open.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the disease remains highly variable from patient to patient, it is critical to improving our ability to predict who will have a more severe illness so that we can appropriately allocate resources,” said Dr. Mehra, director of Sleep Disorder Research at Cleveland Clinic.
‘Patients with sleep disorders do not have an increased risk of developing COVID-19 but they have a worse clinical prognosis from the disease.’
Researchers used Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 research registry, which includes data from nearly 360,000 patients tested for COVID-19 at Cleveland Clinic, 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 co-morbidities such as obesity, heart and lung disease, cancer, and smoking.
The findings set the stage for additional studies to identify whether early effective treatments such as PAP (positive airway pressure) or oxygen administration can improve COVID-19 outcomes.
These current findings have significant implications as decreased hospitalizations and mortality could reduce the strain on healthcare systems.
Indeed sleep-related hypoxia translates to worse COVID-19 outcomes, risk stratification strategies should be implemented to prioritize the early allocation of COVID-19 therapy to this subgroup of patients.
Source: Medindia
