A new study has thrown light on association between unemployment with undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea stating that they have a higher risk of having lost a job multiple times.
Results show that individuals with sleep apnea were more likely to have experienced multiple involuntary job losses compared to participants who did not have sleep apnea. Those with moderate-to-severe sleep apnea were more than twice as likely to have a history of multiple job layoffs or firings, it said.
The study on Assessing Daily Activity Patterns through occupational Transitions (ADAPT) examined 261 participants with an average age of 41 years, and 58% were women. Seventy-three percent received hourly wages rather than a salary, and about 45% of participants had a history of job loss many times. Breathing during sleep was evaluated with a home-based test, which revealed that 42% percent had at least mild sleep apnea.
The analysis showed that 39 matched pairs (78 participants) remained for the logistic regression model with the results controlled for potential confounders such as age, sex, race, and job payment type. However, the study did not include the body mass index (BMI) for the analysis.
"These results suggest that undetected obstructive sleep apnea could have long-term, negative effects on vocational functioning," said principal investigator Patricia Haynes, an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Nearly 30 million adults in the US have obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic disease that involves the repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep. Common symptoms include snoring, choking or gasping during sleep. If not treated, it can cause daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and impairments in cognitive functioning in any job.
