Cognitive deficits in sleep apnea: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A meta-analytic review has been conducted on cognitive deficits in sleep apnea. Although there have been various research conducted on the effect of sleep apnea on cognitive function, there have been some inconsistencies in these previous research findings. The main purpose of this study is to examine the degree of cognitive deficits in sleep apnea patients, as well as the potential moderator variables of such deficits. Furthermore, the relative contribution of both physiological and neuropsychological measures in correctly classifying sleep apneas of different severity, relative to normal controls were also examined in order to discourage the use of measures that have relatively poor predictive validity. Both vote-counting methods and fixed-effects models were examined based on the effect sizes calculated for each individual study. Degree of sleep apnea (moderate or severe), levels attention, short- and long-term memory performance, and vigilance served as the primary dependent variables of interest in this study. Characteristics of each study and patient population were noted to examine the effects of these variables on the dependent measures. The results in this study support the notion that multiple measures should be used in assessing cognitive deficits in sleep apnea patients, as well as the hypothesis that there is a discontinuity of cognitive deficits between sleep apnea patients of varying severity. Furthermore, there seems to be a differential contribution of both physiological and neuropsychological measures in correctly categorizing sleep apnea patients.