New Delhi, Sep 29 (NationPress) Elevated levels of air pollution can adversely affect not just your lungs but also exacerbate health issues for individuals suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), as indicated by a recent international study that underscored the link between environmental health and sleep medicine.

Although OSA is a prevalent condition, many individuals remain unaware of its presence. Those with OSA frequently snore loudly, experience interruptions in breathing throughout the night, and may awaken multiple times.

The findings, shared at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, highlighted that for every single unit rise in PM10—the minuscule particles, 10 micrometers or smaller, emitted by vehicle exhaust and industrial activities—there was a slight yet significant increase in the patients’ apnoea hypopnea index (AHI).

AHI refers to the number of apnoeas (instances of halted breathing) and hypopnoeas (instances of diminished breathing) experienced per hour during sleep.

For instance, patients with a low AHI (under five) recorded an average PM10 concentration in their locality of approximately 16 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Conversely, patients with a high AHI (five or more) had a higher average PM10 level, around 19 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

“While we recognize that OSA is more prevalent among older or overweight individuals, there is increasing concern that air pollution may also exacerbate the condition,” remarked Martino Pengo, Associate Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca and a clinician at Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Milan, Italy.

The research encompassed data from 19,325 OSA patients across 25 cities in 14 different countries.

The study identified variations in the strength of the correlation between air pollution and OSA across different urban areas.

“We established a statistically significant positive correlation between long-term average exposure to air pollution, particularly fine particles known as PM10, and the severity of obstructive sleep apnea,” Pengo stated.

“Even after considering other factors known to influence OSA, we recorded an average increase of 0.41 in the number of respiratory events per hour of sleep for every unit increase in PM10,” Pengo added.

This research stresses the importance of integrating environmental factors such as air quality with other risk elements when addressing the treatment of individuals with OSA.