Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder characterized by intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. OSA is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, metabolic dysregulation, and neurocognitive dysfunction, which may bring worse prognosis. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the standard treatment of OSA while the oral appliance and surgery are the alternative treatments. The differences of craniofacial features among races contributed to the race-specific presentations of OSA. Up to date, only limited studies investigated the long-term prognosis of OSA and most of them recruited Caucasians and African Americans. Moreover, most studies didn't address the impact of treatment other than CPAP on the long-term prognosis. .~National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan enrolled 99% of whole Taiwan's population and has longer period of 10 years for follow-up, which is suitable for investigation of long-term prognosis and predictors in OSA. However, due to limited parameters for diagnosis and treatment, the results could be biased in such secondary database research. Center of Sleep Disorder in National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) established from 2006 has 2,600 sleep studies annually. Therefore, database and cohort from sleep center could offer the validations of the prognosis and predictors determined from NHIRD. In addition, the impact of all three treatment modalities, namely CPAP, oral appliance, and surgery, on long-term prognosis could be studied in the prospective way.~Therefore, in this project, we aimed to achieve three goals (1) To explore long-term prognosis and identify the predictors in Taiwanese OSA patients with NHIRD, where the prediction mode of prognosis was established (2). To validate the prediction model derived from NHIRD with the database of NTUH sleep center (3) To determine the effects of different treatments on long-term prognosis with prospective following NTUH sleep center cohort.
The purpose of this study is to explore long-term prognosis and to identify the predictors in Taiwanese OSA patients. Validation of the prediction model derived from NHIRD with the database of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) sleep center is planed to determine the effects of different treatments on long-term prognosis.