Prospective study of snoring and risk of hypertension in women

Whether snoring increases the risk of hypertension remains unclear. The aut hors examined the association between snoring and risk of hypertension in a cohort of 73,231 US female nurses aged 40-65 years and without diagnosed c ardiovascular disease or cancer in 1986. Blood pressure levels and physicia n-diagnosed hypertension were self-reported through validated questionnaire s. During 8 years of follow-up, 7,622 incident cases of physician-diagnosed hypertension were reported. Older age, smoking, body mass index, waist cir cumference, waist-hip ratio, weight gain, less physical activity, and sleep ing on the back were directly associated with regular snoring. After adjust ment for age, body mass index, waist circumference, and other covariates, s noring was associated with a significantly higher prevalence of hypertensio n at baseline (odds ratio = 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16, 1.27 far occasional snoring and odds ratio = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.33, 1.5 for regular snoring). In prospective analyses using incident cases of hypertension as the outcome, the multivariate relative risks of hypertension were 1.29 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.37) for occasional snoring and 1.55 (95% CI: 1.42, 1.70) for r egular snoring. In addition, snoring was associated with significantly high er systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. These data suggest that sn oring may increase risk of hypertension in women, independent of age, body mass index, waist circumference, and other lifestyle factors.