Cognitive Function In Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome And Its Influencing Factors

Background:Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a kind of sleep-related severe respiratory disorder which had been neglected seriously once. The complex irreversible cognitive impairment which seriously impacting the activities of the OSAS patients’daily living, is caused by long-term hypoxemia and related to the onset of dementia. The study aimed to know the status of OSAS patients’cognitive function and the factors of cognitive dysfunction. This will help patients, families and health care workers fully understand and make them pay more attention to the importance of the cognitive status in patients’quality of life.Purpose:The purpose of this study is to describe the OSAS patients’ cognitive function status and explore its influencing factors.Methods:The study was designed to survey the general situation and cognitive function in patients with OSAS who received respiratory sleep therapy in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. A convenient sample including 299 patients was collected from January 2012 to December 2013. It was achieved by the usage of self-designed general information questionnaire and the Montreal cognitive assessment (MOCA) was used to assess cognitive function of patients.Results:Overall the study, there were 299 patients with an average age 46.88±12.74 years old.59.9% of the patients had achieved college degree. MOCA scored an average of 25.70±2.09 points, and 42.8% of the patients had cognitive dysfunction with each dimension score:visual space and executive function(4.06±0.90 points), naming(2.65±0.56points), attention(5.19± 0.42 points), language(2.54±0.49 points), delayed recall(3.94±0.99 points), abstract thinking(1.71±0.48 points), directional force(5.50±0.87 points). Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the degree of education, income (Beta=0.117), smoking status (Beta=0.141), insomnia (Beta=0.116) accounted for 10.5% of the total variance in the interpretation of cognitive function.Conclusion:This study identified a high incidence rate of cognitive dysfunction. Influencing factors of OSAS patients’cognitive function status include degree of education, income, smoking status and insomnia. But low variation degree can be explained. The study in the future can extend the influencing fields based on this foundation and explore more relevant interventional factors further.