Ambient air pollutants aggravate association of snoring with prevalent hypertension: results from the Henan Rural Cohort.

AIM

We aimed to assess if snoring and ambient air pollutants were jointly associated with prevalent hypertension in a cross-sectional study.

METHODS

A total of 28440 participants aged 18-79 years were obtained from the Henan Rural Cohort. Snoring evaluated using Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scale was classified into 'Never', '<3 times/week' and '≥3 times/week' groups. Concentrations of air pollutants (PM, PM, PM, and NO) were evaluated by a satellite-based spatiotemporal model. The independent and joint associations between snoring and air pollutants on prevalence of hypertension were analyzed by logistic regression models.

RESULTS

The mean age of all participants was 56.0 ± 12.2 years. The frequencies and prevalence of participants with hypertension were 3666 (32.39%) in men and 5576(32.57%) in women, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of participants with snoring frequency of <3 times/week, ≥3 times/week was 1.10(1.02-1.20), and 1.15(1.08-1.23) for hypertension, compared to those without snoring. Participants with a snoring (≥3 times/week) and higher exposure concentrations of PM, PM, PM, and NO had 2.58-fold(95% CI: 2.30-2.90), 3.03-fold(95% CI: 2.69-3.41), 2.89-fold(95% CI: 2.57-3.25) and 2.75-fold(95% CI: 2.44-3.10) for hypertension, compared to those without snoring and low concentrations of air pollutants. Additionally, participants with high PM and ≥3 times/week snoring (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.18-1.48) was at a higher likelihood for prevalent hypertension, compared to those without snoring and with high PM.

CONCLUSIONS

Snoring and high ambient air pollutants might be important predictors of hypertension, and higher concentration of PM might aggravate the association between snoring and hypertension.