• Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine sought to explore the relationship between sleep disorders and Motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) incidence using Cox proportional hazard models that were adjusted for age, sex, education, geriatric depression, cognitive scores and comorbidity index.

• Motoric Cognitive Risk (MCR) syndrome is a condition preceding dementia, marked by slow walking speed and cognitive decline.

• The study inlcuded 445 New Yorkers aged 65 years and older who did not have dementia.

• Of these, 403 were MCR free at baseline and among these 36 developed MCR over a follow up period of 3 years.

• A higher incidence risk was found in the “poor sleepers” group (hazard ratio HR = 2.7 [1.2, 5.2]) but after adjusting for depressive symptoms this association was not found to be significant (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 1.6 [0.7,3.4]).

• In fully adjusted models, sleep related daytime lethargy was found to be significantly associated with risk of developing MCR in the study population  (aHR = 3.3 [1.5–7.4]). 

• MCR developed in 35.5% of participants who reported extreme daytime sleepiness, as compared to 6.7% of those who did not.

• The authors also concluded that poor quality of sleep was significantly associated with incident MCR but not prevalent MCR(OR = 1.1 [0.5,2.3])

• The study provides evidence on the effect of sleep quality on cognitive impairment, particularly among older age groups. Further studies are required to elaborate on the effect on the quality of life.

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