A simple nighttime breathing device may dramatically improve survival for people living with both type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea, according to new Swedish research.
The study, presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) meeting in Vienna, suggests that treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can lower the risk of death by about 26%.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and block the airway.
This causes repeated pauses in breathing, leading to poor-quality sleep and low oxygen levels.
Left untreated, it can raise the risk of high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. CPAP machines work by delivering pressurized air through a mask, keeping the airway open throughout the night.
Although CPAP has long been used to treat sleep apnea, its impact on survival has been unclear, especially for people who also have type 2 diabetes.
That is significant, since sleep apnea is extremely common in this group—affecting as many as 80% of adults with diabetes, most of whom are undiagnosed. Previous studies tended to focus on short-term outcomes, such as blood sugar levels, rather than long-term survival.
To answer this question, Swedish researchers turned to five national health registers, covering more than a decade of data between 2010 and 2024.
They identified 12,388 people with both type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea who were prescribed CPAP, and compared them with over 737,000 people with diabetes who had never received CPAP.
After up to 14 years of follow-up, they found that only 6.1% of people in the CPAP group had died, compared with nearly 29% of those who were not prescribed CPAP.
Even after adjusting for age, sex, body weight, cardiovascular history, smoking, blood pressure, and other health factors, CPAP use was still linked with a 26% lower risk of death from any cause.
“This large real-world study highlights the potential benefits of CPAP for people with type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea,” said Dr. Jonas Agholme of Linköping University, who led the research. “The findings suggest that early diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea could play an important role in improving survival.”
The researchers caution, however, that this was an observational study, meaning it cannot prove CPAP alone caused the survival benefit.
They also lacked detailed information on how faithfully patients used their devices, and on the severity of sleep apnea in different individuals. Further studies, including randomized controlled trials, will be needed to confirm the effect.
Even so, the results provide fresh evidence that managing sleep apnea should be considered an important part of diabetes care. For millions living with both conditions, a CPAP machine might do more than improve sleep—it could help extend life.
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Source: KSR.
