Research Letter: Impact of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Disease Duration on Neuropsychological Functioning After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Veterans Affairs TBI Model Systems Study.

OSA diagnosis and duration were self-reported, not confirmed by records or polysomnography, so duration may be wrong and some people classified as OSA negative may have had undiagnosed OSA. The study did not have OSA severity or treatment data, so it cannot say whether treating OSA would change cognition. Six BTACT subtests were examined, and the paper states no correction for family-wise error was applied. The analytic sample was 89 veterans from one site, mostly male and White, and it differed from people lost or refused by being more likely Hispanic and having less severe TBI. Participants too impaired to complete testing were given the lowest possible scores. The timing of OSA diagnosis relative to TBI varied, and time living with OSA before diagnosis was unknown.

The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration. Publication types list NIH and U.S. government research support.

Do not conclude that obstructive sleep apnea caused worse delayed memory after TBI, or that treating it will improve memory. The study only linked longer self-reported duration since diagnosis to one test, and it did not show that people with OSA performed worse than people without OSA.