This study investigated gender differences in the effect of comorbid insomnia symptom on depression, anxiety, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). There are gender differences in the pr...
This study investigated gender differences in the effect of comorbid insomnia symptom on depression, anxiety, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). There are gender differences in the presentation of OSA. However, the influence of gender on the presentation of comorbid insomnia symptom and OSA is not known. All participants performed overnight polysomnography in single university hospital sleep laboratory and completed a battery of questionnaires including Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Short Form-36 Health Survey. Insomnia symptom was defined as present if a patient had any insomnia complaints longer than one month and at least one time per week. 655 adult patients with OSA were enrolled in this study. Among them, 233 (35.5%) reported comorbid insomnia symptom with OSA, which was not more prevalent in women than in men. The severity of OSA was not related to comorbid insomnia symptom. Based on linear regression, women had higher depression, fatigue, and daytime sleepiness and lower health-related QOL than men (all, p<0.05). The presence of insomnia symptom had negative effects on fatigue (p=0.005) and QOL only (p=0.015) in men but not in women when taking gender-by-insomnia interaction into consideration. There were significant differences in PSG-based sleep architecture between the OSA-only and OSA-insomnia groups, but only in the subgroup of men. In conclusion, men are more prone to the negative impact of comorbid insomnia symptom and OSA on their level of fatigue and QOL than women.