Study on OSA screening and influencing factors in community-based elderly hypertensive patients based on single-lead wearable ECG devices.

Purpose: Assessing whether single-lead ECG can be effectively and relatively inexpensively used in large-scale OSA screening, and identifying factors influencing moderate-to-severe OSA among elderly hypertensive patients without atypical symptoms in primary care.
Methods: The study gathered data from 15 medical institutions in Ningxia between January and December 2022 using cloud platforms. The dataset included basic information and 72-h ECG monitoring for 2573 hypertensive patients over 65. OSA screening was conducted using the single-lead wearable ECG devices based on the ACAT algorithm. A multivariable logistic regression identified the main factors affecting OSA severity in these patients, and the AUC was used to assess the model's predictive accuracy.
Results: The study found an OSA detection rate of 87.10%, with 55.42% being moderate to severe cases. Key risk factors associated with developing moderate-to-severe OSA included cardiac irregularities like supraventricular extrasystole and atrioventricular block, male gender, lifestyle factors like alcohol consumption and smoking, and health indicators such as SDNN ≤ 100 ms, abnormal LF/HF ratio, BMI, and age. The model's accuracy for predicting OSA, indicated by a ROAUC of 0.625, was moderate. Factors like gender, tea consumption, stroke history, and ventricular tachycardia were also independently linked to OSA severity.
Conclusion: This study combines single-lead wearable ECG devices with the ACAT algorithm for OSA screening in Ningxia, China. Initial screening identified 87.10% of participants as having OSA, with 55.42% being moderate to severe cases. This suggests a convenient, low-cost, and repeatable ECG-based method for OSA screening, potentially improving early detection and management of OSA by identifying potential risk factors.
Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the First People's Hospital of Yinchuan City on October 6, 2021 (project number 2021-SF-009) and obtained informed consent from the participants. Competing interest All authors declare that they have no conficts of interest. Disclosures None.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)