Association of sleep apnea and depressive symptoms among US adults: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Sleep apnea exerts adverse health effects due to inflammation and metabolic disruption. It is associated with metabolic diseases. However, the evidence of its relationship with depression is inconsistent. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep apnea and depressive symptoms in adults in the United States. METHODS: This study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), wherein the data from 2005 to 2018 of 9,817 individuals were obtained. Sleep apnea was self-reported by the participants using a questionnaire on sleep disorders. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess depressive symptoms. We implemented multivariable logistic regression and stratified analyses to assess the correlation between sleep apnea and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 515 (6.6%) participants among 7,853 non-sleep apnea participants and 269 (13.7%) subjects among 1,964 sleep apnea participants had a depression score ≥ 10, they were deemed to have depressive symptoms. The multivariable regression model, showed that individuals with sleep apnea were 1.36-fold more likely to experience depressive symptoms when adjusted for potential covariates (odds ratios [OR] with 95% confidence intervals of 2.36 [1.71–3.25]), and a positive correlation between depressive symptoms and sleep apnea severity was found. The stratified analyses, revealed that sleep apnea was related to an increased incidence of depressive symptoms in most subgroups, except for those with coronary heart disease. Further, there was no interaction between sleep apnea and the covariates. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with sleep apnea in the US have a relatively high prevalence of depressive symptoms. and the severity of sleep apnea positively correlated with the depressive symptoms. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-15358-8.