Relationship between Quality of Life and the Function of Cognition in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea-hypopnea Syndrome

Objective:To assess the quality of life (QOL) and cognition function in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSAHS), and to study the relationship between the QOL and severity of OSAHS, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS),cognition disorders. Methods:Sixty-two patients with OSAHS and 32 non-OSAHS patients (control group) which all diagnosed by polysomnography (PSG) were chosen from The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, and they were assessed by QOL using the Short-Form 36 Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36), by EDS using the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), and for cognition disorders by mini-mental state examination (MMSE).The associations between the total score on the SF-36 and the baseline characteristics, PSG parameters, such as ESS score, and MMSE score were examined by simple regression analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis.Results:The scores of SF-36 and MMSE in OSAHS group were significantly lower than the control group (63.9±14.7/78.8±4.5, 24.6±2.0/27.1±1.3,P0.001). In patients with OSAHS, the score of SF-36 was negatively correlated with apnea hyponea index (AHI) and ESS (r=-0.52, -0.39, P0.01 respectively,), and was positively correlated with mean level of SaO2 (MSaO2, r=0.28, P0.05), and the lowest SaO2 (LSaO2, r=0.26, P0.05). The score of MMSE in OSAHS group was negatively correlated with AHI (r=-0.86, P0.001) and ESS (r=-0.51, P0.001), was positively correlated with MSaO2 (r=0.36, P0.01) and LSaO2 (r=0.60, P0.01). The score of SF-36 was positively correlated with MMSE (r=0.54, P0.01).Conclusion:There is an obvious decrease in OSAHS patients with quality of life and cognition function, which was correlated to frequently happened intermittent hypoxemia during the night.