Excessive daytime sleepiness in the elderly: association with cardiovascular risk, obesity and depression

To observe the relationship between Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS) and the presence of risk factors for cardiovascular dysfunction, depression and obesity in the elderly.

We interviewed 168 elderly from the community of Campina Grande, Paraíba. They were selected according to health districts in the period of 2010. We used the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to diagnose excessive daytime sleepiness (> 10 points); waist circumference for the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction (> 94 or > 80 cm); Geriatric Depression Scale for depression (>10 points) and body mass index for obesity (> 25 kg/m2). Association analysis was performed by the Chi-square test adjusted for sex and age group, adopting α < 0.05.

One hundred and sixty eight elderly individuals with mean age of 72.34 ± 7.8 years old participated in this study, being 122 (72.6%) women. EDS was identified in 53 (31.5%) of them; depression, in 72 (42.9%); overweight/obesity, in 95 (64.46%); and risk of cardiovascular dysfunction, in 129 (79.6%). Depressed men (78.6%, p = 0.0005) and risk of cardiovascular dysfunction (57.1%, p = 0.02) were more prone to EDS. In women, only obesity was related to sleepiness (42.1%, p = 0.01). Only those aged between 70 - 79 years old showed association between sleepiness and obesity.

It was found that obesity for women, and depression and cardiovascular dysfunction risking for men were associated with EDS in the elderly. The variable sex is a confusion condition for the association with sleepiness.