The association between obstructive sleep apnea and the risk of poor delivery events in women: A population‐based nested case–control study

PURPOSE: To investigate the risk of poor delivery events (PDEs; premature delivery, abortion, and stillbirth) in female subjects with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). METHODS: The study identified 8346 female subjects with PDEs as cases between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2015 from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 in Taiwan. A total of 33,384 controls were also identified based on frequency matching for age and year of index date. Diagnoses of OSA and PDEs were determined according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision. The risk of PDEs in female subjects with OSA was estimated with conditional logistic regression analyses. FINDINGS: The mean age of the 41,730 female subjects was 35.53 years. The overall incidence rate of PDEs was 506.22 per 100,000 person‐years for subjects with OSA, which was significantly higher than that for the controls (501.95 per 100,000 person‐years). The risk of PDEs was higher in subjects with OSA than in controls (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI] [95% CI]: 1.08–1.43), including for premature delivery (AOR = 1.20; 95% CI: 1.16–1.50), and abortion (AOR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.09–1.47). OSA showed no relation to stillbirth (AOR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.99–1.31). The findings indicate that the longer a subject has been experiencing OSA, the higher the probability of PDEs. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of PDEs associated with OSA was found in this study. In particular, the longer a subject has OSA, the higher the likelihood of PDEs, exhibiting a dose–response effect. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: To effectively promote maternal health in clinical practice, health providers need to recognize OSA as a risk factor associated with negative pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, OSA symptoms should be assessed and managed in all pregnant women to enable more comprehensive maternal care.