Sleep apnea VA claims: the conditions it is claimed secondary to and what the Board grants

How VA rates sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is rated under DC 6847 in 38 CFR 4.97, from 0 to 100 percent. A veteran who needs a breathing device such as a CPAP machine is rated at 50 percent; daytime sleepiness alone is lower.

What sleep apnea is claimed secondary to

Under 38 CFR 3.310(a), a condition caused or worsened by a service-connected disability is service connected too.

Granted

All sleep apnea claims

24.6%

Knee condition

45.3%

Depression (major depressive disorder)

39.7%

Back condition

36.7%

Rhinitis

36.5%

Sinusitis

35.2%

PTSD

33.1%

Asthma

23.6%

Diabetes

22.2%

Tinnitus

23.6%

Share of decided claims granted; a remand counts as not granted. One count per veteran. Secondary claims are the ones the Board marked as secondary to that condition.

Claimed secondary to	Granted	Veterans	Share
PTSD	2,785	8,406	33.1%
A psychiatric condition (unspecified)	397	1,608	24.7%
Back condition	331	903	36.7%
Knee condition	341	753	45.3%
Depression	297	749	39.7%
Diabetes	165	743	22.2%
Rhinitis	256	702	36.5%
Sinusitis	180	511	35.2%
Asthma	142	602	23.6%
Tinnitus	151	639	23.6%

The obesity route

Obesity is not a disability on its own. VA's adjudication manual says it can still be an intermediate step: a service-connected condition leads to weight gain, and the weight gain causes or worsens another condition, which can then be service connected under 38 CFR 3.310. Recent grants used exactly that chain, from depression and from a back condition; it may be part of why knee and back claims win so often.

No group stands out

Sleep apnea comes up in decisions from every kind of service, and none of the 161 groups with at least 15 decided claims clears our bar for a lead. The lookup is still useful to see how a client's group compares.

Bases 43Exposures 45Military jobs 37Medals 36

Bar: share of this group's sleep apnea claims the Board granted. Red line: all sleep apnea claims, 24.6% granted. A bar past the line won more often than usual.

×

More often than usual: how much more often sleep apnea comes up in this group's decisions than in all Board decisions. It shows how common the condition is here, not how often it wins.

Set aside

For groups VA does not presume, veterans whose decision shows service VA already presumes for sleep apnea (for example Vietnam or Thailand for Agent Orange) are left out, because for them the presumption is the answer.

Sort byGrant shareMore often than usualClaims decided

• Fort Sill, Oklahoma
  34.3% granted · 12 of 35

  0.8×more often

• Fort Polk
  29.5% granted · 13 of 44

  0.7×more often

• Fort Riley
  29.4% granted · 5 of 17

  0.7×more often

• USS Kitty Hawk
  29.4% granted · 5 of 17

  0.3×more often

• aircraft carrier
  27.3% granted · 6 of 22

  0.8×more often

• USS John F. Kennedy
  26.7% granted · 4 of 15

  1.6×more often

• Fort Belvoir
  25.0% granted · 4 of 16

  0.8×more often

• USS Saratoga
  25.0% granted · 4 of 16

  0.8×more often

• Fort Lewis, Washington
  23.5% granted · 8 of 34

  0.8×more often

• USS Enterprise
  22.7% granted · 5 of 22

  0.7×more often

• Fort Stewart
  22.2% granted · 4 of 18

  0.7×more often

• Fort Ord
  19.5% granted · 8 of 41

  0.8×more often

• Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland
  19.0% granted · 4 of 21

  0.9×more often

• Fort Hood
  18.0% granted · 16 of 89

  0.9×more often

• Fort Drum
  17.6% granted · 3 of 17

  0.9×more often

• Da Nang AFB
  17.2% granted · 10 of 58

  0.4×more often

• Fort Benning
  17.2% granted · 10 of 58

  0.7×more often

• Lackland AFB, Texas
  17.1% granted · 6 of 35

  1.0×more often

• Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California
  17.1% granted · 12 of 70

  0.8×more often

• Fort Irwin, California
  16.7% granted · 3 of 18

  1.1×more often

• Fort Knox
  16.7% granted · 7 of 42

  0.7×more often

• Kadena AFB
  16.7% granted · 4 of 24

  0.5×more often

• Fort Bliss
  15.8% granted · 3 of 19

  0.5×more often

• Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Japan
  15.8% granted · 3 of 19

  0.5×more often

• Fort Campbell
  14.7% granted · 5 of 34

  0.6×more often

• Fort Gordon (Eisenhower)
  14.0% granted · 6 of 43

  0.7×more often

• Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand
  13.6% granted · 6 of 44

  0.4×more often

• Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) in Korat, Thailand
  13.5% granted · 5 of 37

  0.3×more often

• Camp Lejeune
  12.8% granted · 71 of 554

  0.7×more often

• Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand
  12.5% granted · 2 of 16

  0.3×more often

• U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand
  11.6% granted · 5 of 43

  0.3×more often

• Fort Jackson
  11.3% granted · 6 of 53

  0.7×more often

• Fort Bragg
  10.5% granted · 6 of 57

  0.4×more often

• Fort McClellan, Alabama
  9.6% granted · 10 of 104

  0.6×more often

• Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
  9.5% granted · 2 of 21

  0.5×more often

• USS Ranger
  9.5% granted · 2 of 21

  0.7×more often

• Fort Dix, NJ
  9.1% granted · 3 of 33

  0.5×more often

• Andersen AFB, Guam
  6.7% granted · 1 of 15

  0.5×more often

• Eglin AFB, Florida
  5.3% granted · 1 of 19

  0.6×more often

• Camp Casey
  4.2% granted · 1 of 24

  0.3×more often

• Subic Bay Naval Station
  4.2% granted · 1 of 24

  0.6×more often

• USS Constellation
  0.0% granted · 0 of 15

  0.4×more often

• USS Forrestal
  0.0% granted · 0 of 15

  0.8×more often

What follows from sleep apnea

Once sleep apnea is service connected, migraine claimed secondary to it was granted for 89 of 221 veterans (40.3%), acid reflux for 46 of 123, diabetes for 73 of 222, and hypertension for 106 of 426.

Read the decisions

Recent decisions, with the Board's reasoning as summarized by AI:

• A25110982, December 2025: granted secondary to PTSD, depression and alcohol use disorder, on a private opinion; the VA opinions were inadequate for not considering the PTSD.
• A25111096, December 2025: granted secondary to service-connected allergic rhinitis, on a VA examination and a private opinion.
• A25111053, December 2025: granted secondary to depression, with obesity as the intermediate step.
• A25109555, December 2025: claimed secondary to depression, denied; no link between the two was established.

What the data cannot tell you

Secondary counts include only claims the Board marked as secondary to a condition. These are historical outcomes, not predictions.

For representatives

• Pick the secondary theory the medical evidence supports best; knee, back, depression and PTSD all have many grants.
• Where weight gain is the mechanism, ask for an opinion that walks through each step: condition, weight gain, sleep apnea.
• Make sure the rating evidence shows CPAP use if the veteran uses one.