Sleep Quality and Risk of Dementia Among Older Male Veterans

Kristine Yaffe; Jasmine Nettiksimmons; Jerome Yesavage; Amy Byers

doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2015.02.008

Sleep Quality and Risk of Dementia Among Older Male Veterans

Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;23(6):651-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2015.02.008. Epub 2015 Feb 21.

Authors

Kristine Yaffe¹, Jasmine Nettiksimmons², Jerome Yesavage³, Amy Byers⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Department of Epidemiology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Department of Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA. Electronic address: Kristine.yaffe@ucsf.edu.
² Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
³ Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA; Palo Alto Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.

PMID: 25794635
DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2015.02.008

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether a diagnosis of sleep disturbance is associated with dementia in older veterans.

Methods: For this retrospective cohort study, we obtained medical record data from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Patient Care Database for 200,000 randomly selected veterans aged 55 years and older. Prevalent cases of dementia from the baseline period (2000-2003) were excluded, leaving an analytic sample of 179,738 male veterans. Follow-up took place from 2004 to 2011. The primary outcome was all-cause dementia, ascertained using International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision codes. Sleep disturbance, the primary predictor, was also ascertained using these codes.

Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, those with sleep disturbance had a 27% increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio: 1.27; 95% confidence interval: 1.20-1.34).

Conclusion: Sleep disturbance was associated with increased risk of dementia among a large cohort of older, primarily male veterans.

Keywords: Sleep; dementia; veterans.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Aged
Dementia / epidemiology*
Dementia / etiology
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Risk Factors
Sleep Wake Disorders / complications
Sleep Wake Disorders / epidemiology*
United States / epidemiology
Veterans / statistics & numerical data*