Ioachimescu OC, et al. - Researchers sought to determine if and how the coexistence of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in individual influences natural history and long-term outcomes. In the OLDOSA (Obstructive Lung Disease and Obstructive Sleep Apnea) cohort, 4,980 veterans with an acute hospitalization were recruited in whom asthma, COPD, OSA, overlapping conditions, or none of these disorders at baseline had been diagnosed. They observed a 10-year all-cause cumulative mortality rate of 52.8%; the median time to death was 2.7 years. This suggests very high long-term mortality in this large longitudinal cohort of hospitalized veterans with high comorbid burden, asthma, COPD, OSA, and their overlap syndromes. Mortality rates observed in correlation with nonoverlapping asthma, OSA and COPD, were 54.2%, 60.4%, and 63.0%, respectively. Significantly better survival was observed in correlation with patients with OSA, positive airway pressure initiation and superior therapeutic adherence.