Association of a History of Sleep Disorder With Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Abstract

Objective We explored whether a history of sleep disorder affected a current diagnosis of cognitive impairment and clinical conversion in a non-demented elderly population. Methods Comprehensive clinical data collected as part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) was analyzed. A history of sleep disorder was recorded in the recent ADNI medical database. Standard clinical and neuropsychological tests were performed both at baseline and follow-up visit. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed after adjusting for age, sex, education, apolipopro-tein E ε4 status, vascular risk score, body mass index, Geriatric Depression Scale score, and use of sleeping pills. Results A total of 391 cognitively normal individuals, 303 with early mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 364 with late MCI were in-cluded. Sleep disorder history was significantly associated with an increased risk of MCI but not with clinical conversion. A history of insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) significantly increased the risk of MCI, but only an OSA history predicted progression to Al-zheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. Conclusion Our findings suggest that a sleep disorder history usefully aids early detection of cognitive impairment and emphasize that such sleep disorder, particularly OSA, is important as potential target for AD prevention.