Effects of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Medical Comorbidities on Language Abilities.

Konstantinos Makanikas,Efstathia Chartomatsidou,Panagiotis Simos,Georgia Andreou

doi:10.3389/fneur.2021.721334

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of the present cross-sectional study is to evaluate the semantic language abilities of patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) compared to normative data. Secondary objectives are to examine the effects of OSAS comorbidities on language test performance.Method: 118 adult patients suffering from OSAS were assessed using standardized tests (Boston Naming Test, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Verbal Fluency Test).Results: Compared to normative standards, the OSAS group (age and education adjusted mean) scored significantly lower on all tests (p < 0.01). The OSAS group also included a significantly higher percentage of persons scoring below the 5th percentile of the normative distribution on the four tests (p < 0.01). The Apnea/Hypopnea Index, O2 Desaturation index, SaO2 <85% (min) and SaO2 <75% (min) were significantly associated with language test scores (p < 0.05). Moreover, higher Apnea–Hypopnea Index score and night-time oxygen desaturation were associated with reduced phonemic and semantic fluency performance only among patients with a history of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia (p < 0.05). The moderating effect of diabetes and cardiovascular disease on the association between OSAS severity indices and test scores did not reach significance (p > 0.6).Conclusions: Results suggest that the severity of semantic language impairments in patients with OSAS is associated with the severity of the disease and intensified by common medical comorbidities (hypertension and hypercholesterolemia).

Highlights

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a common sleep-related breathing disorder affecting 5% of the general population [1]
The present study addresses this gap in the literature, by assessing a wide range of language abilities in a large sample of middle-aged adults with OSAS
Average age and education-adjusted scores of OSAS patients were within the normal range, these were significantly lower than the comparison group on all language tests (p < 0.002)

Summary

Introduction

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a common sleep-related breathing disorder affecting 5% of the general population [1]. OSAS is characterized by periodic complete or partial cessation of breathing while sleeping. These recurrent events of breathing result in fragmented sleep due to increased sleep arousals that terminate the apneic episodes and in recurrent hypoxemia (reductions in hemoglobin oxygen levels) due to upper airway obstruction [2]. Patients with OSAS may show reduced performance on a wide range of cognitive functions such as attention, memory and executive function [3,4,5]. Few studies have examined language abilities in patients with OSAS, and the majority of those studies used only the phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tests, which require initiation and shifting skills, intact semantic memory and effective search processes [6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion