Apnea hypopnea index (AHI) is used to study the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypertension, but the independent contributions of total sleep time (TST) and apnea/hypopnea event count to hypertension have not been previously investigated. We studied the relationship between polysomnographically assessed TST and hypertension in a sex-balanced community-dwelling cohort of hypertensive patients and normotensive controls (Skara Sleep Cohort).
Participants (n = 344, men 173, age 61.2 ± 6.5 years, BMI 28.6 ± 4.8 kg/m, mean ± SD) underwent ambulatory home polysomnography. Hypertension was defined according to contemporary Swedish national guidelines. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to predict hypertension status from TST and apnea/hypopnea count (total events/night) adjusting for sex, age and BMI.
OSA was highly prevalent in this population (AHI 26 ± 4 events/h). Hypertensive patients had shorter TST than normotensive patients (353 ± 81 vs. 389 ± 65 min, P