Machine learning for scalable obstructive sleep apnea risk screening using digital phenotyping from wearable devices and clinical scales

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common yet frequently underdiagnosed, partly because overnight polysomnography (PSG) is logistically burdensome and access to specialized testing is limited. We aimed to develop machine-learning models for OSA risk screening using multimodal digital phenotyping from consumer-grade wearable devices, smartphone-based assessments, and clinical scales. We enrolled 338 participants and collected data over four weeks. After preprocessing, 107 features were derived from wearable-derived physiological and activity measures, smartphone-based records, and questionnaire-based clinical risk profiles, and used to classify high- versus low-risk OSA groups defined by the Berlin Questionnaire. Across multiple model configurations, predictive performance was high, with the best-performing model achieving an AUC of up to 0.94 and an F1 score of 0.80 in the internal validation set. Consistently influential predictors included body mass index, Insomnia Severity Index score, Smartphone Overuse Screening Questionnaire score, resting heart rate, and heart rate recovery. These findings suggest that multimodal digital phenotyping from accessible consumer technologies may support scalable pre-screening for OSA risk in real-world settings. Further validation against PSG-confirmed OSA outcomes is needed.Trial Registration: Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS) KCT0009175 (Registration data: Feb-15-2024) (https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do?search_lang=E&focus=reset_12&search_page=M&pageSize=10&page=undefined&seq=26133&status=5&seq_group=26133).