BACKGROUND:

This study evaluated the relationship between sleep disorders (SDs) and osteoporosis risk in Taiwan.

METHODS:

From the Taiwan National Health Insurance data, we identified 44,690 newly diagnosed SD patients (846 with apnea and 43,844 without) from 1998 to 2001 and 89,380 comparisons without SD in the same period frequency matched by sex, age and diagnosis year. Incident osteoporosis was measured by the end of 2010.

RESULT:

Patients with apnea-SD and nonapnea SD exhibited a higher osteoporosis incidence rate than did the comparisons (9.97 and 13.3 vs. 6.77 per 1000 person-years, respectively). The Cox method estimated adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of osteoporosis was 2.98 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.36-3.74) in apnea-SD patients, compared with 2.76 (95% CI = 2.64-2.88) in nonapnea-SD patients after controlling for sex, age, comorbidities, and treatment. Greater HRs of osteoporosis were observed for female patients (4.00, 95% CI = 3.72-4.29) and those aged >64 years (42.0, 95% CI = 33.5-52.7) in the apnea SD sub-cohort. Apnea SD was associated with the highest risk of osteoporosis without fracture compared with both the nonapnea SD sub-cohort and comparisons.

CONCLUSION:

Patients with sleep disorders have an elevated risk of osteoporosis, especially for women and the elderly.