Frailty and Sleep Disorder in Chronic Liver Diseases

We aimed to investigate the association in frailty and sleep disorder as assessed by the Japanese version of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-J) in patients with chronic liver diseases (CLDs, n = 317, 141 males). Frailty was determined using the following five phenotypes: unintentional body weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, muscle weakness, slow walking speed, and low physical activity. Sleep disorder was defined as patients with PSQI-J score 6 or greater. Robust (phenotype, 0), prefrail (1 or 2 phenotypes) and frailty (3 phenotypes or greater) were observed in 101 (31.9%), 174 (54.9%) and 42 (13.2%), respectively. The median (interquartile range (IQR)) PSQI-J score was 4 (3, 7). Sleep disorder was found in 115 patients (36.3%). The median (IQR) PSQI-J scores in patients of the robust, prefrail, and frail groups were 3 (2, 5), 5 (3, 7), and 8 (4.75, 10.25), respectively (p < 0.0001 between any two groups and overall p < 0.0001). The ratios of sleep disorder in patients with robust, prefrail and frailty were 15.8% (16/101), 39.1% (68/174), and 73.8% (31/42), respectively (overall p < 0.0001). In conclusion, CLD patients with frailty can involve poorer sleep quality. As sleep disorder in CLDs is potentially remediable, future frailty-preventive strategies must take sleep complaints into account.