Polysomnographic characteristics of sleep in old age patients

Introduction Sleep disorders increase and change with age. However, these are insufficiently researched and in some cases ignored. Objective: To describe the polysomnographic (PSG) findings in patients over 65 years old, analyzing and comparing these findings in different age groups (G) between them. Materials and methods Descriptive study analyzing the information of polysomnographic studies during a 6 h night of registry total sleep time (TTR) in the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a population over 65 years old between June 1, 2011 and December 30, 2012. The following variables were taken into consideration: age, BMI (body mass index), scoring on the Epworth scale, and variables related to sleep (sleep onset latency (SOL), stage REM latency, sleep efficiency, % sleep time of REM and apnea hypopnea index/h: AHI). In order to analyze it, the population was divided into: G1 (ages 65–70), G2 (ages 71–75 ), G3 (ages 76–80) and G 4 (ages > 80) comparing the results obtained from the four groups. Statistical Analysis: The information from the general series and the inter-group differences were analyzed. The continuous variables were expressed with M (media), SD. The “M” difference between groups was done through ANOVA. The nominal variables were expressed as a percentage. A p Results The PSG records on 551 patients over 65 years old were analyzed, 54.4% (300) were male. 45% (253) between the ages of 65–70 (G1), 25% (138) between 71–75 (G2), 17% (93) between 76–80 (G3) and 13% (67) over 80 years old (G4). The 64 had less BMI than G1 and G2. The G4 had less BMI than G1 an G2 (27.48 ± 0.73 vs. 29.70 ± 0.39; p  = 0.007 and 27.48 ± 0.73 vs. 29.31 ± 0.50; p  = 0.04, respectively). Regarding the PSG characteristics, G4 had more AHI than G1 (20.63 ± 3.40 vs. 13.24 ± 0.97; p  = 0.005), not showing differences between the rest of the groups. G3 showed a higher SOL than G1 (36.92 ± 4.24 vs. 27.88 ± 2.39 p  = 0.04) and higher stage REM latency than G1 and G2 (161.76 ± 9.17 vs. 140.31 ± 5.22, p  = 0.03 and 161.76 ± 9.17 vs. 137.87 ± 6.45; p  = 0.03, respectively). Significant differences in the analyzed variables were not observed. Conclusion The information displayed that AHI increased with age, and not with BMI. As years have passed, the SOL has increased on patients over 76 years old but not on patients over 80 years old. Future studies will help confirm these findings. This is the first study in Latin America which analyses this type of variables in the elderly. Acknowledgement MD. Cecilia Lucero for stadistic analysis and Andres Alvez for teacher English.