A study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found that adults with obstructive sleep apnea were more likely to experience long-term COVID symptoms after catching the virus.
The study said the risk of experiencing long COVID is as high as 75% for people who also have sleep apnea, an NIH press release said.
“We still have a lot to learn about the long-term effects of this virus, but this study could inform clinical care by identifying patients who may benefit from closer monitoring,” Dr. Marishka K. Brown, National Center on Sleep Disorders research director, said in the release.
The results of this study, which stemmed from the NIH's initiative aimed at Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER), were published in the journal titled "SLEEP," the release stated.
The study included data between March 2020 and February 2022 from electronic health records (EHRs) of more than 2.2 million Americans who tested positive for COVID-19. The release said that the study found that adults with sleep apnea may benefit from more attentive monitoring following COVID-19 infection. The findings might also shed light as to why some people have a higher risk of developing the post-viral syndrome, the study said.
Three RECOVER EHR research networks provided the data for this analysis: PCORnet, which included 330,000 adults and 102,000 children; PEDSnet, a pediatric-focused research network affiliated with PCORnet; and the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), which included 1.7 million adults, according to the release.
