Background The researches on the associations between different candidate genes and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are inconsistent. Here, we performed a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis to estimate the contribution of variants from candidate genes to the risk of OSA. Methods Qualitative analysis was conducted to find the relationships for all included genes. Then, quantitative analysis of both allele models and genotype models was applied to evaluate the risk variants for OSA. Furthermore, a similar analysis was performed in different ethnic groups. Results We included 152 publications containing 75 genes for qualitative analysis. Among them, we included 93 articles containing 28 variants from 16 genes for quantitative analysis. Through allele models, we found 10 risk variants for OSA (rs1801133 of MTHFR, ɛ4 of ApoE, −1438G/A of 5‐HT2A, −308G/A of TNF‐α, Pro1019Pro of LEPR, rs1130864 and rs2794521 of CRP, D/I of ACE, LPR and VNTR of 5‐HTT) with the ORs of 1.21–2.07 in global population. We found that the variant of ɛ2 of ApoE could uniquely decrease the risk of OSA in the East Asian subgroup, while the other 6 variants, including ɛ4 in ApoE, −308G/A in TNF‐α, Pro1019Pro in LEPR, D/I in ACE, LPR and VNTR in 5‐HTT, could increase the risk of OSA. As for the European subpopulation, we only found that −308G/A in TNF‐α could increase the risk for OSA. Conclusions Eleven variants from the candidate genes are associated with the risk of OSA, which also show ethnicity differences in East Asian and European subgroups.

No abstract