Demographics of Adults With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Who Undergo Nasal Surgery

To assess the demographic characteristics between adult obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients who did and did not undergo nasal surgery (NS).

Retrospective cohort study.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California clinical database.

Retrospective study of adult patients with ≥1 OSA diagnoses linked to clinical encounters from 2009 to 2016. Qualifying NS procedures performed on or after cohort entry through 2017 were ascertained. Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared; multivariable logistic regression examined associations of these characteristics with undergoing NS.

A total of 174,821 patients had an OSA diagnosis. Among these, 3518 (2.0%) underwent NS, including septoplasty (61.9%), sinus-related (12.9%), turbinate (14.2%), and rhinoplasty (11.1%) procedures. Compared to the nonsurgery group, NS patients were more likely to be male (75.5% vs 62.1%), younger (48.2 ± 13.0 vs 54.7 ± 14.1), have lower body mass index (31.8 ± 6.4 vs 34.3 ± 8.1), and no comorbid conditions (63.1% vs 53.5%), P < .001. After adjusting for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), neighborhood deprivation, and comorbidities, black and Asian/Pacific Islander adults with OSA had 42% and 46% decreased odds of undergoing NS compared with non-Hispanic white patients (odds ratio, OR [95% confidence interval, CI]: 0.58 [0.50-0.67] and 0.54 [0.49-0.61]), while Hispanic patients had similar odds (OR [95% CI]: 1.02 [0.93-1.12]). Patients living in neighborhoods of highest deprivation had 18% lower odds of undergoing NS, compared with patients from neighborhoods corresponding to areas of lowest deprivation (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI]: 0.82 [0.75-0.91]).

These findings suggest that younger age, male sex, lower BMI, and higher SES may be associated with a higher likelihood of undergoing NS in OSA patients.