Current Evidence on Cardiovascular Risks in Female Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review summarizing clinical features and cardiovascular risk in female OSA without systematic review methods
PubMed 42161451 · doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2026.02.003
What was done
This is a narrative review summarizing physiological mechanisms, diagnostic challenges, and cardiovascular outcomes associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in women across the lifespan.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical data, effect sizes, or risk statistics. It qualitatively reports that female OSA presentation is influenced by hormonally mediated changes, leading to frequent underdiagnosis due to atypical symptoms and lower anthropometric indices, while conferring higher risks of cardiovascular disease, mortality, and health and welfare costs compared to men.
Why it matters
It highlights that sex-specific physiological differences and reliance on male-derived diagnostic criteria contribute to substantial underdiagnosis of female OSA despite serious cardiovascular consequences.
Limits
This is a narrative review with no quantitative data or search methodology reported in the abstract. General conclusions are constrained by the underlying literature's under-representation of female participants and a lack of studies designed to evaluate sex-specific outcomes.