Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Gastroesophageal Reflux and the Risk of Barrett’s Esophagus in a Population-Based Case-Control Study

Anna Lindam, Bradley J Kendall, Aaron P Thrift, Graeme A Macdonald, Suzanne O’Brien, Jesper Lagergren and David C Whiteman

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: Background: Gastroesophageal reflux is overrepresented in people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and it has been suggested that OSA worsens gastroesophageal reflux symptoms. Aggravated reflux might lead to an increased risk of Barrett’s esophagus. Aim: To assess the association between sleep apnea symptoms and Barrett’s esophagus. Methods: Included in a case-control study in Brisbane, Australia were 237 patients with histologically confirmed Barrett’s esophagus and 247 population controls. The controls were randomly selected from the electoral roll and frequency-matched to the cases by age and sex. Information on OSA symptoms (excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep related apnea symptoms), gastroesophageal reflux symptoms and anthropometric measures were collected through interviews and written questionnaires. Multivariable logistic regression provided odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for potential confounding by BMI and gastroesophageal reflux. Results: The prevalence of Barrett’s esophagus was higher among people with excessive daytime sleepiness than those without (24% vs. 18%; p-value 0.1142) and in participants with sleep-related apnea symptoms (20% vs. 13%; p-value 0.1730). However, there were non-significantly increased ORs of Barrett’s esophagus among people with excessive daytime sleepiness (OR 1.42, 95% CI 0.90–2.34) and sleep related apnea symptoms (OR 1.32, 95% CI 0.74–2.36) when adjusting for age, sex and BMI. After further adjustment for gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, the point ORs were no longer increased (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.61–1.70 for daytime sleepiness and OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.38–1.38 for sleep related apnea symptoms). Conclusions: Symptoms of OSA are possibly associated with an increased risk of Barrett’s esophagus, an association that appears to be mediated entirely by gastroesophageal reflux.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129836 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 29836&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0129836

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129836

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().