You are seeing this message because your Web browser does not support basic Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.


ABOUT ARCHIVES
Advanced Search

Welcome   | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In


  Vol. 162 No. 2, January 28, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Archives
  •  Online Features
  Original Investigation
 This Article
 •Full text
 •PDF
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Citation map
 •Citing articles on HighWire
 •Citing articles on ISI (25)
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in this journal
 Topic Collections
 •Quality of Life
 •Neurology
 •Aging/ Geriatrics
 •Alert me on articles by topic

Daytime Sleepiness and Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly Population

Maurice M. Ohayon, MD, DSc, PhD; Marie-Françoise Vecchierini, MD

Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:201-208.

Background  Recent findings suggest that there may be a relationship between excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and cognitive deficits. This study aims to determine to what extent EDS is predictive of cognitive impairment in an elderly population.

Methods  A total of 1026 individuals 60 years or older representative of the general population living in the metropolitan area of Paris, France, were interviewed by telephone using the Sleep-EVAL expert system. To find these individuals, 7010 randomly selected households were called: 1269 had at least 1 household member in this age range (participation rate, 80.9%). In addition to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, and International Classification of Sleep Disorders diagnoses, the system administered to participants the Psychological General Well-being Schedule, the Cognitive Difficulties Scale (MacNair-R), and an independent living scale.

Results  Excessive daytime sleepiness was reported by 13.6% of the sample, with no significant difference among age groups. Compared with nonsleepy participants, those with EDS were at increased risk of cognitive impairment on all the dimensions of the MacNair-R scale after controlling for age, sex, physical activity, occupation, organic diseases, use of sleep or anxiety medication, sleep duration, and psychological well-being. The odd ratios were 2.1 for attention-concentration deficits, 1.7 for praxis, 2.0 for delayed recall, 2.5 for difficulties in orientation for persons, 2.2 for difficulties in temporal orientation, and 1.8 for prospective memory.

Conclusions  Among elderly individuals in the general population, EDS is an important risk factor for cognitive impairment. A complaint of EDS by an elderly patient should signal the possibility of an underlying cognitive impairment in need of evaluation.


From the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif (Dr Ohayon); and the Laboratoire d'Exploration Fonctionnelle, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (Dr Vecchierini).



THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Preclinical cognitive decline and subsequent sleep disturbance in older women
Yaffe et al.
Neurology 2007;69:237-242.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Predictors of Daytime Sleep of Nursing Home Residents With Dementia
Viegas et al.
J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc 2006;12:286-293.
ABSTRACT  

Daytime Sleeping, Sleep Disturbance, and Circadian Rhythms in the Nursing Home
Martin et al.
AJGP 2006;14:121-129.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Daytime Sleepiness and Cognitive Impairment
JWatch General 2002;2002:2-2.
FULL TEXT  





HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | SUBMIT | SUBSCRIBE | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 2002 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.