Sleep-related injury in the elderly - An epidemiological study in Hong Kong

Objectives: Sleep-related injury is a serious but under-recognized conditio n. We examined the occurrence of sleep-related injuries and REM sleep behav ior disorder (RSBD) in a community sample of elderly in Hong Kong. Design: A representative sample of elderly aged 70 years or above were inte rviewed with a screening question on the presence of sleep-related injuries . Those who answered affirmatively as well as a subsample of negative respo nders were interviewed by clinicians. Patients with suspected sleep disorde rs underwent physical and psychiatric assessment as well as sleep studies. Setting: NA Patients or Participants: NA Interventions: NA Results: In total, 1034 elderly were surveyed and 0.8% reported history of sleep-related injury. Four subjects were confirmed to have RSBD, giving an estimated prevalence of RSBD of 0.38% (95% CI=0.01 to 0.76%). One subject h ad suspected RSBD but refused investigations while 1 had history suggestive of transient RSBD but could not be confirmed by the sleep studies. The cou rse of RSBD in these subjects was that of a waxing and waning course instea d of a progressive deterioration as described in previous literature. Two p atients had been hospitalized for sleep-related injury before but their sle ep disorder was not recognized. Conclusions: We found that sleep-related injury and RSBD were not rare in t he elderly but were frequently under-recognized. Our study calls for greate r attention to elderly who had sustained injury during sleep.