Assessing the influence of obesity on longitudinal executive functioning performance in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Objective: To investigate longitudinal performance on an executive functioning task among individuals with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and the impact of obesity on performance.

Methods: Participants completed the Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B), which is an executive functioning task that measured cognitive flexibility, at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses were used to assess participants' initial performance on the task, as well the trajectories of growth on the task across time points.