Risk of obstructive sleep apnea among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Gianluca Spiteri, Mamoona Arshad, Chiara Michela Rita, Riccardo Ruiu, Stefano Porru, Giuseppe Verlato · 2026
Read Risk of obstructive sleep apnea among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis by Gianluca Spiteri, Mamoona Arshad, Chiara Michela Rita, Riccardo Ruiu, Stefano Porru, Giuseppe Verlato (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13500498.txt.
Description
Gianluca Spiteri and co-authors pool in 2026 evidence on obstructive sleep apnea risk among healthcare workers, whose own breathing disorder could endanger patients through impaired alertness. The condition is common yet underdiagnosed, and shift-heavy health work may aggravate it. Their systematic search of two databases for studies published between 2000 and 2026 kept papers that screened risk with structured questionnaires or confirmed diagnosis with validated tools. Prevalence was then combined with random-effects models.
Nine studies covering 8,473 participants entered the meta-analysis. High-risk prevalence estimates swung widely between studies, and the pooled figure landed near a quarter of workers in the reported confidence range. Geography explained part of the spread, since Europe and the Middle East ran higher than South-East Asia and the United States. Only two studies measured diagnosis directly, so the authors call for larger work using home sleep tests and new digital tools.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Gianluca Spiteri, Mamoona Arshad, Chiara Michela Rita, Riccardo Ruiu, Stefano Porru, Giuseppe Verlato |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30586 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |