Zeitschrift für Schlafstörungen: Behandlung und Pflege

Five Year Compliance to Positive Airway Pressure in Patients with Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Meltem Tulagar, Murad Mutlu, Melike Yuceege, Hikmet Firat and Sadik Ardic

Study objectives: Compliance is the adherence of the patient to CPAP therapy after his/her decision to start treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the compliance to PAP therapy in a large patient population and the results were presented after 5 years of follow-up period in order to emphasize longterm compliance with CPAP treatment in the light of the literature.

Methods: Patients who could not afford CPAP device or attend regular controls were excluded from the study and the remaining 174 patients were included in the study. At the end of 5 years, the patients were called back. A total of 110 patients met the eligibility criteria for the study110 patients (79 males, 31 females) whose charts were reviewed

Results: Fifty of 110 study participants (45.5%) regularly used PAP device for ≥4 hours and the remaining 60 (54.5%) patients did not use PAP device regularly. At the end of 5 years, we found that 36.4% of the patients used the device 4 hours a night. AHI severity does not affect adherence to the device and compliance rates (χ2=2.743; p=0.254)

Conclusion: The patients compliance rates with their PAP devices was found in accord with the literature. This study conveys greater importance than other relevant studies in the literature and it encompasses a larger patient population follow up for a long period.