Demographics of Adults With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Who Undergo Nasal Surgery.

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

Study design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Kaiser Permanente Northern California clinical database.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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]).

Conclusion: 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.