Research at the Technion: sleep apnea is not a risk factor for mortality among the elderly

Prof. Peretz Lavi and Dr. Lina Lavi from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion discovered in their research that unlike young people and middle-aged people, sleep apnea syndrome in the elderly does not pose a risk of mortality. Moreover - the mortality among the elderly with moderate severity of the syndrome was significantly lower than in the general population

Sleep apnea syndrome is not a risk factor for mortality in the elderly. This is what a study conducted at the Technion's Faculty of Medicine and presented last week at a scientific conference in Glasgow, Scotland, suggested.

Sleep-disordered breathing is common in up to 10% of men and up to 5% of women, and is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In many studies, some of which were conducted at the Technion, it was found that patients with sleep apnea syndrome are at a higher risk of death, especially if they are overweight.
Sleep-disordered breathing is more common among the elderly than among middle-aged or young adults, but their medical consequences among the elderly are still not well known.

From the surprising findings reported by Professor Peretz Lavi from the Technion's Faculty of Medicine at the meeting of the European Society for Sleep Research held in Glasgow, it becomes clear that unlike young people and middle-aged people, sleep apnea syndrome in the elderly does not pose a risk of mortality. Moreover, the mortality among old people with moderate severity of the syndrome was significantly lower than in the general population.

In the study, which was conducted in the Lloyd Rigler Sleep Apnea Syndrome Research Laboratory at the Technion's Faculty of Medicine, the mortality rates among old people who were diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome were examined. These rates were compared to the mortality rates in the general elderly population according to age, gender and ethnicity. 56 out of 611 elders died during the four and a half years of follow-up. This mortality rate was lower than the mortality rate in the general population. When the mortality data of old people with severe, moderate and mild severity of sleep-disordered breathing were compared to those of the general population, it was unexpectedly found that the significant contribution to the low mortality was of the group with moderate syndrome severity. In this group the mortality rate was about one third of the mortality rate in the general population. In the groups with the mild and severe severity, the mortality rates of the elderly were similar to those of the general population.

"The survival advantage of the elderly who suffer from a mild form of sleep-disordered breathing, combined with new findings in the scientific literature on the positive effects of intermittent hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in various clinical models - strengthens the hypothesis that sleep apnea syndrome activates adaptive mechanisms in elderly people," says a professor Peretz Lavi and Dr. Lina Lavi, the editors of the study.