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This study examines associations between sleep apnea risk and hypertension in a sample of immigrant Chinese and Korean Americans. The dataset included Chinese and Korean patients ages 50–75 recruited from primary care physicians' offices from April 2018 to June 2020 in the Baltimore-Washington DC Metropolitan Area (n = 394). Hypertension risk was determined using a combination of blood pressure measurements, self-reported diagnosis of hypertension by a medical professional, and/or self-reported use of antihypertensive medications. Linear regression models examined the associations between sleep apnea risk and blood pressure (systolic blood pressure [SBP] and diastolic blood pressure [DBP]). Poisson regression models examined associations sleep apnea risk and hypertension. Models controlled for body mass index (BMI), demographic, and socioeconomic risk factors. We further examined models for potential effect modification by age, gender, Asian subgroup, and obesity, as well as effect modification of daytime sleepiness on the association between snoring and hypertension risk. High risk of sleep apnea appeared to be associated positively with SBP (β = 6.77, 95% CI: 0.00–13.53), but not with DBP. The association was positive for hypertension, but it was not statistically significant (PR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.87–1.41). We did not find effect modification of the associations between sleep apnea and hypertension risk, but we did find that daytime sleepiness moderated the effect of snoring on SBP. Snoring was associated with higher SBP, primarily in the presence of daytime sleepiness, such that predicted SBP was 133.27 mmHg (95% CI: 126.52, 140.02) for someone with both snoring and daytime sleepiness, compared to 123.37 mmHg (95% CI: 120.40, 126.34) for someone neither snoring nor daytime sleepiness. Chinese and Korean immigrants living in the U.S. who are at high risk of sleep apnea have higher SBP on average, even after accounting for sociodemographic characteristics and BMI. : NCT03481296, date of registration: 3/29/2018 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the gender-specific associations between perceived vision impairment and symptoms of depression. Methods: We used the data from the 2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging database of 7448 individuals aged 45 years and older. Questionnaires assessing depression symptoms and perceived visual impairment at near, distance, and in general were administered. Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate if visual impairment could lead to depression, adjusting for the potential confounders of age, socioeconomic status (household income, education level, marital status, and employment status), and health behaviors (alcohol consumption, smoking, and physical activity level) after gender stratification. Results: Perceived general and near vision impairment were significantly associated with symptoms of depression in males (odds ratio [OR] = 2.78 and 2.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.91-4.04 and 1.78-3.63). Perceived general and distance vision impairment were significantly associated with symptoms of depression in females (OR = 2.16 and 2.08; 95% CI, 1.67-2.79 and 1.61-2.69). General sight with near vision impairment in males and general sight with distance vision impairment in females could be stronger predictors of depression than other vision impairment combinations (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC], 0.6461; p = 0.0425 in males; AUROC, 0.6270; p = 0.0318 in females). Conclusion Gender differences were found in the characteristics of visual impairment on symptoms of depression. Ophthalmologists should be aware that near vision impairment in males and distance vision impairment in females have an adjunctive effect that might contribute to symptoms of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]