Research

Mixed

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with an increased risk of incident heart failure in community-dwelling middle-aged and older men, but not in women.

If you are a man over 40, getting your sleep apnea treated is a critical step for heart health, even if you don't have other symptoms. The study shows that untreated OSA significantly increases the risk of developing heart failure. Women in this study did not show the same risk association, possibly due to later onset or hormonal protection, but men should prioritize diagnosis and treatment (like CPAP) to protect their heart.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Obstructive sleep apnea predicted incident heart failure in men but not in women (adjusted hazard ratio 1.13 [95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.26] per 10-unit increase in AHI).
Daniel J. Gottlieb et al. · Circulation · 2010

Why this rating

Large prospective community-based cohort (SHHS) with long follow-up (median 8.7 years) and formal adjudication of events.

Source

Prospective Study of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Incident Coronary Heart Disease and Heart Failure

Daniel J. Gottlieb et al. · Circulation · 2010

DOI 10.1161/circulationaha.109.901801

cohort · n=4422Cited 1,533×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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