Abstract
Background: Flavor sensation was the joint perception of smell and taste sensation was associated with the pleasure of life. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had been demonstrated the presence of upper airway remodeling which altered sensory and motor function due to hypoxia or snore vibration. This study aims to investigate whether OSA is associated with the risk of flavor disorder (FD). Methods: We conducted a nationwide cohort study using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, one million subjects were sampled with data collected from 1999 to 2013 and 9,191 identified diagnosed OSA patients were included. Each patient was matched with non-OSA controls from the general population by propensity score matching (1:1) based on age, gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, ankylosing spondylitis, and Charlson comorbidity index, 8,037 OSA and an equal number of non-OSA subjects were used to compared in this study. The incidence of FD was assessed at the end of 2013 and cumulative incidences, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: The adjusted HR (aHR)of FD for the OSA group was 2.082-fold (95% CI = 1.149–3.773, p=0.0155) higher than non-OSA group. The stratified analyses revealed aHR of FD for the hyperlipidemia group was 2.264-fold (95% CI = 1.061–4.832, p=0.035). Subgroup analysis showed the subjected of female OSA had more risk to develop FD (aHR:2.345, 95% CI = 1.026–5.357, p=0.043). Conclusion: A higher risk of developing FD was found among the newly diagnosed OSA cohort during the longer than 10-year follow-up period
Risk of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with bipolar disorder: A nationwide population‐based cohort study in Taiwan
