Occupation and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Daniel A. Schwartz, Denis Vladimirovich Vinnikov, Paul David Blanc

2017

Closed access Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.1097/jom.0000000000001008
Data confidence 70 medium
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) remains a prevalent condition, but its occupational burden is unclear. We carried out a systematic review to characterize the consistency and magnitude of occupational associations with OSA. METHODS: We studied OSA within three occupational categories: commercial drivers, organic solvent-exposed workers, other selected occupations. We performed a meta-analysis on the prevalence of OSA among drivers and the risk of OSA associated with solvent exposure. RESULTS: The pooled OSA prevalence in drivers was 41% (95% confidence interval [CI] 26% to 56%) for apnea hypopnea-index (AHI) is greater than 5, and 15% (95% CI 12% to 19%) for AHI is greater than 15. Exposure to solvents was associated with increased but non-statistically significant risk of OSA: summary relative risk, 2.38 (95% CI 0.89 to 6.32). Evidence of occupational association was inconsistent for other factors. CONCLUSIONS: OSA is common among commercial drivers and potentially associated with occupations involving likely solvent exposure.