Sleep breathing score linked to cardiovascular death
An observational study of 4,904 adults followed for a median of approximately 11 years linked higher scores to greater cardiovascular death risk.
Researchers analysed sleep recordings and follow-up data from 4,904 adults in the Sleep Heart Health Study, an observational cohort study. They developed a score combining a weighted measure of breathing disturbances, how regularly they occurred and the total burden of related drops in blood oxygen.
Over a median follow-up of approximately 11 years, 341 participants died from cardiovascular causes—conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. Higher scores were associated with cardiovascular death after full adjustment for other factors. The score added risk information beyond established clinical and sleep-related factors. Associations for the usual measure of breathing disturbance frequency and an existing measure of oxygen-drop burden were no longer statistically significant after full adjustment.
Why it matters
Heart and blood vessel disease is a concern in aging. This work addresses how best to characterise the cardiovascular stress that may be related to disrupted breathing during sleep.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish cause and effect. The results came from one cohort.
From the paper
- Participants
We analysed 4904 adults from the Sleep Heart Health Study with baseline polysomnography and adjudicated follow-up.
- Follow-up
Over a median follow-up of approximately 11 years, 341 cardiovascular deaths occurred.
Quoted word for word from the full text on academic.oup.com.
- Modelling and theory
- Obstructive sleep apnoea
- Coronary heart disease
- Fatal coronary heart disease
- Heart failure
- Humans
The paper
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 12 Oct 2026
