Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Coronary Artery Disease in Older Adults

Abstract

Purpose: Insomnia, a frequent geriatric syndrome, is thought to be linked with coronary artery disease and increased mortality. The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between sleep duration and coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiovascular risk factors. Materials and Methods: In this study, patients who applied to the geriatric outpatient clinic for comprehensive geriatric assessment were retrospectively evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups according to the six hours of ideal sleep assumption: those who slept less than six hours and those who slept six hours or more. Results: A total of 2255 patients (age 72±6 years, 63.3% female) were included in this study. Patients who were sleeping less than 6 hours were older (14.4% vs. 10.3%; p=0.005) and most of them were female (69.5% vs. 60.2%; p<001). Coronary artery disease (31.9% vs. 25.9%; p= 0.003), falls (31.8% vs. 25.3%; p=0.002) and depression (25.7% vs. 21.3%; p=0.022) were more common, while hypertension ( 68.5% and 72.5%; p=0.049) were less common in the short sleep duration group. The regression analysis showed that short sleep duration was significantly associated with CAD (OR:1.39; 95% CI:1.14-1.7; p=0.001), falls history (OR:1.25; 95% CI:1.02-1.5; p=0.026), age (OR:1.01; 95% CI:1.01-1.04; p=0.001), male gender (OR:0.63; 95% CI:0.51-0.76; p<0.001), and hypertension (OR:0.74; %95 CI:0.6-0.9; p=0.003). Conclusion: Similar to the literature, CAD was observed more frequently in patients who slept less than 6 hours in our results. Considering this relationship between short sleep duration and CAD, it is important to question sleep duration in comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Keywords

• insomnia
• geriatrics
• cardiovascular disease
• sleep disorders