0271 A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Sleep and Mental Health Between Younger Older Adults (65-90 Years of Age) and Older Adults (>90 Years of Age)

Abstract Introduction Although sleep problems are established correlates of anxiety and depression in older adults, little is known about whether these associations shift in very late life. Using the nationally representative National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), we examined sleep characteristics and their associations with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depressive symptoms between younger older adults (65-90) and older adults (90 years of age and above). Methods At baseline, NHATS comprised 6,376 adults age 65 years and above who were representative of 32 million older adults in the US. Additional sleep questions are provided to a random subsample of roughly one third of the cohort during Waves 3 and 4. We categorized participants into 65-90 years of age and greater than 90 years of age and compared sleep characteristics (e.g., duration, snoring) using chi square tests. We then applied logistic regression to estimate associations between each sleep and GAD or PHQ-defined depression. We adjusted for health conditions and smoking and used stratified models to evaluate whether associations differed among younger older and older adults. Results Participants in our sample (n= 2,382) were 58% female and 81% White non-Hispanic. Older adults have a higher odds of depression (OR=1.9,95% CI:1.0-3.5) and anxiety (OR=1.9, 95% CI:1.1-3.3) than younger older adults. Multiple sleep domains were associated with anxiety and depression. For anxiety, only pain-related sleep disruption predicted anxiety (OR=3.8,95% CI:1.2-11.7, p=0.023) among older adults. For depression, pain-related sleep disruption (OR = 4.1,95% CI:1.2-14.6, p=0.029), long (>9 h OR=5.6,95 %CI:1.1-28.0, p=0.034) and short (OR=5.1,95 %CI:1.1-24.6, p=0.043) sleep duration were significant in older adults, while latency (OR=2.0, 95% CI:1.3-3.1, p=0.001), snoring (OR=1.6, 95% CI:1.0-2.6, p=0.035), daytime sleepiness (OR=1.9,95% CI:1.1-3.1, p=0.015), and sleep quality (OR=0.3, 95% CI: 0.2-0.6, p< 0.001) were significant in younger older adults. Conclusion In summary, these findings indicate that in the oldest adults, mood symptoms are most strongly linked to pain-related sleep disruption and extreme sleep duration. The results underscore the importance of considering both age and specific sleep domains when assessing risk for mood disturbances in older populations, highlighting potential targets for tailored interventions. Support (if any)