Sleep-disordered breathing advances cognitive decline in the elderly
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Abstract
Objective: To examine whether the presence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with an earlier age at mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer disease (AD)-dementia onset in participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort. We also examined whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) use is associated with delayed onset of cognitive decline.
Methods: From the ADNI cohort, 3 subsets with progressively stringent criteria were created in a step-wise manner. Age at MCI or AD-dementia onset was the main outcome variable. Analyses were performed separately for each subset in untreated SDB+ vs SDB− and untreated SDB+ vs CPAP+ groups. Chi-square and t tests were performed to examine between-group differences. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan–Meier method, compared by the log-rank test, and assessed by multivariate Cox regression adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: SDB+ patients had a younger age at MCI onset in all subsets (MC1: 72.63 vs 83.67; MC2: 72.15 vs 83.45; MC3: 77.40 vs 89.89; p < 0.01). SDB+ patients had a younger age at AD-dementia onset only in our most conservative subset (AC3: 83.46 vs 88.13; p < 0.05). In a combined outcome analysis, SDB+ patients had a younger age at onset to MCI or AD-dementia in all subsets. In subsets 1 and 2, CPAP use delayed the age at MCI onset (CMC1: 72.63 vs 82.10; CMC2: 72.11 vs 82.10; p < 0.01).
Conclusions: Consistent with our hypothesis, the presence of SDB was associated with an earlier age at cognitive decline. Our findings in CPAP+ participants suggest that CPAP treatment of SDB may delay progression of cognitive impairment.
GLOSSARY
- AD=
- Alzheimer disease;
- ADNI=
- Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative;
- BMI=
- body mass index;
- CPAP=
- continuous positive airway pressure;
- MCI=
- mild cognitive impairment;
- NL=
- cognitively normal;
- SDB=
- sleep-disordered breathing
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. The ADNI investigators contributed to the design and implementation of ADNI and/or provided data. The ADNI list is available on the Neurology® Web site at Neurology.org.
Supplemental data at Neurology.org
- Received October 16, 2014.
- Accepted in final form January 28, 2015.
- © 2015 American Academy of Neurology
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