Association of Hypertension and Sleep-Disordered Breathing

Abstract

IT IS generally assumed that sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), especially obstructive apnea, is independently associated with hypertension. However, the 13 cross-sectional epidemiologic studies^1-13 that assessed this question reported mixed findings. Seven of these studies found a positive association between hypertension and various types of SDB.^{1-3,7,9,12,13}