Effect of CPAP treatment on subjective cognitive decline in patients with mild obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

There is no consensus on whether to use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for mild obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Our study aims to observe the efficacy and necessity of using CPAP treatment in mild OSAS patients complicated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). From August 2021 to July 2022, patients with mild OSAS and SCD were randomized to the control group or the CPAP group, and followed up for 3 months. The primary results were evaluated using subjective cognitive decline questionnaire (SCD-Q), the Huashan version of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT-H), and animal fluency test (AFT), which were tested at admission and three months after treatment, respectively. And plasma Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 levels were also measured at admission and 3 months after treatment. A total of 110 patients completed the final study, with 55 in the control group and 55 in the CPAP group. No significant differences in demographic data, Laboratory tests, AHI index, SCD-Q, AVLT-H, and AFT scores between the two groups before treatment. The SCD-Q score of patients in CPAP group significantly decreased after 3 months of treatment and was significantly lower than that of control group ( Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41105-025-00620-w.