• Giannicola Iannella, Claudio Vicini, Andrea Colizza, Giuseppe Meccariello, Antonella Polimeni, Antonio Greco, Marco de Vincentiis, Andrea de Vito, Giovanni Cammaroto, Riccardo Gobbi, Chiara Bellini, Elisabetta Firinu, Stefano Pelucchi, Giampiero Gulotta, Irene Claudia Visconti, Milena di Luca, and Giuseppe Magliulo.
• Department of 'Organi Di Senso', University "Sapienza", Via Satrico 7, 00183, Rome, Italy. giannicolaiannella@hotmail.it.
• Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2019 Dec 1; 276 (12): 3549-3556.

PurposeDifferent authors have reported that aging could be associated with changes in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) related parameters (apnea/hypopnea index, SpO2, reduction of daytime sleepiness, etc.), type of sleep and pattern of collapse. Regarding OSA severity in elderly patients, it is commonly believed that the AHI score tends to increase with aging.MethodsIn this paper, we reviewed the literature regarding the studies which compared older (> 65 years old) and young (< 65 years old) OSA patients regarding the effect of aging on daytime sleepiness (ESS evaluation) and OSA severity (AHI evaluation). A meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of age on daytime sleepiness and OSAS severity was also performed to corroborate previously reported experience.ResultsMeta-analysis showed no statistical (p = 0.8) differences regarding AHI differences emerged from the comparison of the two groups of patients. Elderly patients (> 65 years old) showed less daytime sleepiness, showing a statistical difference in the meta-analysis of data (p = 0.004) CONCLUSION: Although a direct correlation between aging and AHI values would seem to be present, no significant differences in baseline AHI between young (< 65-years-old) and elderly (> 65-years-old) patients emerged in this meta-analysis study. The effects of OSAS on daytime sleepiness seem to be much more prominent in young or middle-aged patients than in elderly patients.

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