SLEEP DISORDERS AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN PATIENTS WITH ASTHMA

Abstract

Sleep disturbances are found to be quite prevalent in asthma patients. However, information about the prevalence of sleep disorders and their association with cognitive impairment and disease severity in asthma patients is lacking. This cross-sectional study was done to find out the frequency of sleep disorders and investigate the relationship between sleep and cognitive functioning in patients with mild, moderate and severe asthma. A convenience sample of 150 physician diagnosed asthma patients with age range between 30 - 70 years was chosen from two pulmonary clinics of Lahore, Pakistan. Sleep disorders scale, cognitive functioning scale and a demographic sheet were used for collecting data from the patients. The frequency of sleep disorders was found to be 38% in this study. Patients having severe asthma had worse cognitive functioning and sleep as compared to the ones with mild or moderate asthma. Multiple hierarchical analysis indicated sleep disorders and severe stage asthma to be significant predictors of deteriorated cognitive functioning and significantly increased the model’s predictive power (∆R²= .42). Severe asthma (p<.05), SRBD (p<.05), hypersomnia (p<.01), nightmare disorder (p<.01), RBD (p<.01), and general sleep problems (p<.001) emerged as strong predictors of declined cognitive function in the patients. This study highlights the significance of identifying and treating sleep disorders timely in adult asthma patients as a strategy to prevent cognitive decline and enhance the wellbeing of the patient.