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

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, apolipoprotein 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 included. 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 Alzheimer’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.