Objective Sleep Patterns Across Frailty Levels in Older Adults Using Wearable Data

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Sleep Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Frailty is a significant geriatric syndrome impacting health outcomes.
• Sleep disturbances are common in older adults and may be linked to frailty.
• Objective sleep assessment in community-dwelling older adults is crucial for understanding frailty-related changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in sleep parameters among community-dwelling older adults across varying levels of frailty.
• To explore the utility of wearable devices for monitoring sleep in frail, pre-frail, and robust individuals.

Main Methods:

• Classified 70 community-dwelling adults (≥65 years) into frail, pre-frail, and robust groups based on five phenotypes.
• Utilized wrist-worn wearable devices to objectively measure sleep parameters including total time in bed (TIB), total sleep time (TST), sleep stages, wake after sleep onset, restless time, and sleep efficiency.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in TIB, TST, light sleep, deep sleep, and restless time were observed between frailty groups.
• Frail adults exhibited longer TIB and TST compared to robust and pre-frail groups.
• Frail individuals spent a higher proportion of sleep in light sleep and experienced more restless time than robust individuals.

Conclusions:

• Wearable sleep monitoring is a practical tool for identifying sleep characteristics associated with frailty in community settings.
• Objective sleep data can inform personalized interventions for individuals with frailty.
• Integrating wearable sleep monitoring into geriatric care supports individualized approaches to healthy aging.