Snoring as an Independent Risk Factor for Hypertension in the Nonobese Population: The Korean Health and Genome Study

Background: Although the close relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and hypertension has been strengthened by the accumulated evidence, the issues of controlling for coexisting factors and the lack of definite evidence in presenting a cause-effect relationship still remain. This study aimed to evaluate the independent association between habitual snoring and the 2-year incidence of hypertension in a nonobese population in Korea. Methods: Subjects were drawn from the Korean Health and Genome Study, which is an ongoing population-based prospective study of Korean adults aged 40 to 69 years. The final sample comprised 2730 men and 2723 women without obesity and hypertension at the time of their initial examinations. All participants were reevaluated after an interval of 2 years. Hypertension was defined on the basis of blood pressure ≥140/90 mm Hg or the use of antihypertensive medications. Habitual snorers were defined as those who snored ≥4 days per week. Results: Habitual snoring was significantly associated with increased odds ratios of the incidence rate of hypertension in every stratum of confounding factors, including age, sex, smoking, and level of blood pressure and body mass index at baseline, except for age ≥60 years. After adjustments of other covariates, habitual snoring was independently associated with a 1.49-fold and 1.56-fold excess for odds ratios of the 2-year incidence of hypertension in men and women, respectively. Conclusions: Although further evidence is needed, our results support the contention that habitual snoring is an important predisposing factor in future hypertension, even for nonobese adults.