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Associations between sleep duration patterns and cognitive decline trajectories in older Chinese adults

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research volume 33, pages 3057–3063 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Abnormal sleep duration has been identified as a risk factor for cognitive decline. However, most studies have measured sleep duration and cognitive function at a single time point, while both tend to decrease with age.

Aims

This study aimed to investigate the association between changes in sleep duration patterns and cognitive trajectories in older adults.

Methods

Using longitudinal data (2005–2014) from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, a total of 4347 subjects were included in this study. Cognitive function was measured with the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination. Group-based trajectory models were used to identify the trajectories of sleep duration and cognitive decline within the study sample as the participants aged. Furthermore, the association between sleep duration patterns and cognitive trajectories was examined by multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results

Using the medium-stable sleep duration pattern as a reference, the trajectory with a long and increased sleep duration pattern was more likely to be associated with the slight cognitive decline trajectory (OR = 1.80; 95% CI 1.31–2.44). Persistent short sleep was associated with a decreased likelihood of having a rapid cognitive decline trajectory (OR = 0.32; 95% CI 0.12–0.75).

Discussion

Changes in sleep duration over time were independently associated with cognitive decline and may be a marker of cognitive decline.

Conclusions

Tracking of sleep duration over time in older adults may provide a useful insight for prevention of cognitive decline, and the increased sleep duration should be noticed with greater vigilance.

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Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the Center for Healthy Aging and Development Studies, Peking University for supporting this database. Data used for this research was provided by the study entitled Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) managed by the Center for Healthy Aging and Development Studies, Peking University.

Funding

This study was supported by the Scientific Research Project of Nanchong City-School Cooperation (No. 19SXHZ0402), the 2019 Project of Nanchong City Federation of Social Sciences (No. NC2019C034), the Scientific Research Development Project of North Sichuan Medical College (No. CBY18-A-YB26) and and the Project for first-class Marxist theory of North Sichuan Medical College (No. NSMC-M-18-22).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Qi Zhu and Yueyue You contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, North Sichuan Medical College, Fujiang Road, Shunqing, Nanchong, 234, Sichuan, China

    Qi Zhu & Hui Fan

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Yueyue You

  3. Department of Indoor Environment and Health Monitoring, China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Environmental Health, Beijing, China

    Lin Fan

Authors
  1. Qi Zhu
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  2. Yueyue You
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  3. Lin Fan
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  4. Hui Fan
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Contributions

QZ, YY and HF performed study design. QZ, YY and LF conducted data analysis. QZ and YY wrote the manuscript

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qi Zhu or Hui Fan.

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All authors state that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Duke University and Peking University.

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All participants signed written informed consent indicating their willingness to participate in the research.

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Zhu, Q., You, Y., Fan, L. et al. Associations between sleep duration patterns and cognitive decline trajectories in older Chinese adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 33, 3057–3063 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-021-01851-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-021-01851-w

Keywords

  • Sleep duration
  • Cognitive decline
  • Trajectory
  • Older adults