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The association between continuous positive airway pressure therapy and liver disease development in obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome patients: a nationwide population-based cohort study in Taiwan

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Abstract

Purpose

Studies on the association between continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment and liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cirrhosis in patients with obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) are limited. To the best of our knowledge, none exists that makes use of a national database in an Asian population. This study aims to evaluate the effects of CPAP treatment on patients with these two disorders in a retrospective, population-based study in Taiwan.

Methods

Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance claims database, this study collected the data of OSAHS patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2008 and divided them into CPAP treatment and non-CPAP treatment groups. All subjects were followed up until 2010. Liver disease incidence and risk were calculated.

Results

The CPAP group had a lower cumulative incidence rate of developing liver disease than the non-CPAP group within the observation periods (p < 0.001). After adjusting for age, gender, urbanization level, and comorbidities, the CPAP treatment group showed a lower risk of developing liver disease compared with the non-CPAP treatment group (sub-aHR of 0.66 (95% CI 0.55–0.80), p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our observations suggest that CPAP treatment may play an important role to delay the progression of liver disease in OSAHS patients and decreases the incidence of liver disease among OSAHS patients. Thus, CPAP therapy may be a feasible way to decrease the risk of liver disease among patients with OSAHS.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wen-Miin Liang or Tzu-Chieh Chou.

Ethics declarations

The study protocol was approved by the local medical ethics committee and conducted according to the principles in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Funding

This work was supported by China Medical University and Hospital (grant number: DMR-104-018), Taiwan. The funder had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Liang-Wen Hang and Chi-Fung Chen contributed equally to this work.

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Hang, LW., Chen, CF., Wang, CB. et al. The association between continuous positive airway pressure therapy and liver disease development in obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome patients: a nationwide population-based cohort study in Taiwan. Sleep Breath 21, 461–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1439-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1439-4

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