ArticleSleep2021
Associations between sleep apnea and advanced brain aging in a large-scale population study.
Article in Sleep, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Intermittent Hypoxia in Training Regimes and in Obstructive Sleep Apnea on Aging Biomarkers and Age-Related Diseases: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Cardiometabolic risk factors and brain age: a meta-analysis to quantify brain structural differences related to diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNPooled it
- Poor sleep is robustly correlated with accelerated aging but the evidence for causation is mixed.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Association of obstructive sleep apnoea with exercise capacity and mortality in a population-based study: results of SHIP-TREND.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Exploratory associations of sleep spindles and sleep disordered breathing indices with hippocampal and thalamic volume, and cortical thickness, and cerebrovascular biomarkers among community dwelling older adults: results from the Brain in Motion Study.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Unveiling the role of EGR1 and hub senescence-related genes in type II alveolar epithelial cells senescence for obstructive sleep apnea.BMC biotechnology · 2025Article
- Obstructive sleep apnea and aging of the cardiovascular system: a multidimensional analysis of the mechanisms involved.Biogerontology · 2025Review
- Poor sleep health is associated with older brain age: the role of systemic inflammation.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Sleep apnea physiological burdens and markers of white matter injury: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025Article
- 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data From the American Heart Association.Circulation · 2025Review
- Sleep Disordered Breathing and Subsequent Neuroimaging Markers of Brain Health in Hispanic/Latino Adults.Neurology · 2025Article
- Changes in the Spatial Structure of Synchronization Connections in EEG During Nocturnal Sleep Apnea.Clocks & sleep · 2024Article
- Analysis of Brain Age Gap across Subject Cohorts and Prediction Model Architectures.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Predicting the impact of CPAP on brain health: A study using the sleep EEG-derived brain age index.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2024Article
- 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data From the American Heart Association.Circulation · 2024Review
- Elucidating Multimodal Imaging Patterns in Accelerated Brain Aging: Heterogeneity through a Discriminant Analysis Approach Using the UK Biobank Dataset.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Shifting From Active to Passive Monitoring of Alzheimer Disease: The State of the Research.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Review
- Do try this at home: Age prediction from sleep and meditation with large-scale low-cost mobile EEG.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- The common link between sleep apnea syndrome and osteoarthritis: a literature review.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Review
- Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2023 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association.Circulation · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Advanced brain aging is commonly regarded as a risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Alzheimer's dementia, and it was suggested that sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are significantly contributing factors to these neurodegenerative processes. To determine the association between OSA and advanced brain aging, we investigated the specific effect of two indices quantifying OSA, namely the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the oxygen desaturation index (ODI), on brain age, a score quantifying age-related brain patterns in 169 brain regions, using magnetic resonance imaging and overnight polysomnography data from 690 participants (48.8% women, mean age 52.5 ± 13.4 years) of the Study of Health in Pomerania. We additionally investigated the mediating effect of subclinical inflammation parameters on these associations via a causal mediation analysis. AHI and ODI were both positively associated with brain age (AHI std. effect [95% CI]: 0.07 [0.03; 0.12], p-value: 0.002; ODI std. effect [95% CI]: 0.09 [0.04; 0.13], p-value: < 0.0003). The effects remained stable in the presence of various confounders such as diabetes and were partially mediated by the white blood cell count, indicating a subclinical inflammation process. Our results reveal an association between OSA and brain age, indicating subtle but widespread age-related changes in regional brain structures, in one of the largest general population studies to date, warranting further examination of OSA in the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.