Patients with sleep disorders are much more likely to develop osteoporosis than are those without sleep disorders, according to Dr. Chia-Ming Yen and her associates.
Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea between 1998 and 2001 had an osteoporosis incidence of nearly 10% at the end of 2010, while those without sleep disorders had incidence of 6.7%. Patients with insomnia developed osteoporosis at a rate of 13.1%, and patients with other sleep disturbances had an incidence of 12.7%, Dr. Yen of the National Formosa University in Taiwan, and her associates reported (Sleep Med. 2014 Aug. 1 [doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2014.07.005]).
![[DW] Incidence of osteoporosis by sleep disorder subtype](https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/Image/September-2017/RTEmagicC_5545405_103165_graphic.png.png)
[DW] Incidence of osteoporosis by sleep disorder subtype
Women and the elderly were particularly likely to develop osteoporosis if a sleep disorder was present. Of patients aged 64 years and older who were diagnosed with osteoporosis, 36.2% also had sleep apnea, and 31.9% had another sleep disorder. Incidences of osteoporosis in women in all cases were three to five times higher than those in men, and patients with multiple comorbidities also had an increased risk of osteoporosis, the investigators reported.
The study used data collected from 1996-2010 by the National Health Research Institute of Taiwan.