UK Biobank study links movement patterns with incident sleep apnoea

Researchers analyzed 93,262 UK Biobank participants without a prior clinically diagnosed sleep apnoea diagnosis. Wrist-worn accelerometers were used to estimate time spent sleeping, sedentary, in light physical activity, and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Over a median 8.15 years, 816 participants received a first hospital-recorded diagnosis (ICD-10 G47.3). Cox models estimated associations for modeled reallocations of 30 minutes per day between behaviors.

Reallocating 30 minutes from sedentary time to MVPA was associated with a lower hazard of diagnosis (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.83–0.90). Reallocation to sleep was also inversely associated (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.91–0.96), whereas reallocation to light activity showed little association (HR 0.99, 95% CI 0.97–1.01). In a metabolite subset of 91,197 participants, a one-standard-deviation higher metabolomic risk score was associated with higher hazard (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.06–1.29).

These observational findings concern hospital-recorded diagnoses and modeled time substitutions; they do not establish that changing activity patterns prevents sleep apnoea. The results do not by themselves support a change in clinical management.