Background
The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the risk of nocturia remains unclear. Therefore, we sought to identify whether or not OSA affects the incidence of nocturia.
Methods
A thorough literature search was executed in September 1st 2018 from PubMed, Web of Science database, and Embase. We used DerSimonian and Laird random-effects to calculate the pooled relative ratio (RR).
Results
Total of 13 studies met inclusion criteria and in total comprised, 406 patients and 9518 controls. There was a significant association between OSA and the risk of nocturia (RR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.26–1.59). Through subgroup analysis by different severity of OSA, we found patients who had severe OSA were at high risk of nocturia. Through another subgroup analysis, we found a statistically significant association between OSA and risk of nocturia in the men (RR = 1.487, 95% CI 1.087–2.034, P = 0.013). However, there was no significant relationship between OSA and nocturia in the women (RR = 1.537, 95% CI 0.831–2.842, P > 0.05). Subgroup analysis of different diagnostic methods indicated that OSA was significantly associated with the risk of nocturia regardless what method was used to diagnose OSA (P < 0.05).
Conclusion
The findings suggest that men with OSA have a high incidence of nocturia. A large multicenter study may be useful to explore the relationship between OSA and nocturia, in order to elucidate its causes.
