The Association of Body Mass Index and Adiposity-Estimating Equations with Measures of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Severity: A Cross-Sectional Study

Danny Wadden,1 Mysa Saad,2 George Chandy,3 Shawn D Aaron,3,4 Zhiwei Gao,5 Jamie Farrell,1 Elham Sabri,6 Bashour Yazji,4 Tetyana Kendzerska3,4 1Discipline of Medicine (Respirology), Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Canada; 2Department of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Canada; 3Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Division of Respirology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; 4The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; 5Division of Population Health & Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Canada; 6Ottawa Methods Center, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, CanadaCorrespondence: Tetyana Kendzerska, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute/ University of Ottawa, 1053 Carling Ave, Ottawa, ON, K1Y 4E9, Canada, Email [email protected] and Purpose: Obesity, a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is usually estimated by body mass index (BMI). However, other adiposity-estimating equations may better capture variations in fat distribution. This study assessed the relationship between OSA severity and 15 adiposity-estimating equations, compared to BMI, with subgroup analyses by sex and age (< 50 vs ≥ 50).Patients and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional cohort study using data from 5021 consecutive adults who underwent a Level 1 polysomnography (2015– 2017) in a large academic sleep center in Ottawa, Canada. We assessed correlations between adiposity measures and the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) and examined discriminative ability for moderate-to-severe (AHI ≥ 15/h) and severe OSA (AHI > 30/h) using univariate logistic regressions.Results: The mean age was 49.5 years, 46.6% were women; the mean BMI was 30.0 kg/m2 and 12.7% had severe OSA. All adiposity equations showed negligible (Pearson r 0.0 to ± 0.3) to low (Pearson r ± 0.30 to 0.50) statistically significant correlations with AHI, with many of the equations having a marginally stronger correlation coefficient than BMI, in total and subgroup analysis. Discriminative ability for severe OSA was generally low, with c-indices ranging from 0.52 to 0.67 in the overall sample. However, in females under 50, several equations (eg, Gallagher 2000, Deurenberg 1991 and 1998, ECORE BF) reached excellent discriminative ability (c-indices 0.81), including BMI (c-index 0.80). This pattern was not observed in other subgroups.Conclusion: In this clinical cohort, BMI was associated poorly with AHI; however, the other equations did not outperform BMI. Moreover, BMI demonstrated poor discriminative ability for moderate/severe and severe OSA, with none of the other equations performing better in this context. Notable subgroup differences—particularly among younger females—suggest that tailoring screening strategies by age and sex may improve risk stratification and support refining obesity-based screening approaches.Keywords: obstructive sleep apnea, body mass index, adiposity, equations, apnea–hypopnea index, discriminative ability, sex and age stratification