Associations between sleep-related disorders and cardiovascular disease risk in hypertensive patients: Insights from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES): A cross-sectional study

Both sleep-related disorders (SRD) and hypertension (HTN) are closely related to the occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, few studies have explored their combined effect. Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database, we comprehensively analyzed the combined effect of SRD and HTN on the occurrence of CVD. The weighted multivariate logistic regression analysis was adopted to explore how SRD and HTN can affect the occurrence of CVD. Specifically, the additive interaction was evaluated by the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), attributable proportion (AP), and the synergy index (SI), and the multiplicative interaction was evaluated by the odds ratio (OR) along with 95% confidence interval (CI) from the product term. All the 33,383 participants from the NHANES database were divided into 2 groups, i.e., the CVD (n = 3712) and non-CVD (n = 29,671) groups. The results indicated that SRD (Model 3: OR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.60-2.25) and HTN (Model 3: OR = 2.28, 95% CI: 1.87-2.79) were both significantly associated with an increased risk of CVD. Additionally, we observed a significant additive interaction (RERI = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.03-0.65; AP = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.01-0.21; SI = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.07-1.33) and a significant multiplicative interaction (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.03-1.10) between SRD and HTN on the occurrence of CVD. While both SRD and HTN are associated with CVD occurrence, their interaction can also contribute to the development of CVD.