Various demographic and clinical factors impact PAP therapy compliance, according to a new study from sleep therapy technology company ResMed.
Presented at the American Thoracic Society’s recent ATS 2019 International Conference, the study uncovered significant differences in one-year compliance between patients of different ages and disease severities.
Some key findings:
- Men with sleep apnea are 8.5 percent more likely to comply with PAP therapy than women.
- Patients over age 60 were 7.3 percent more adherent than the entire study cohort (77.7 percent vs. 70.4 percent).
- Patients with self-reported severe sleep apnea were 78 percent adherent at the one-year mark, compared to 70.5 percent of those with self-reported moderate sleep apnea, and 65.2 percent of those with mild sleep apnea.
“Sleep specialists, pulmonologists, and primary care physicians should heed these results and ensure that their younger, female, and more mildly diagnosed patients have the proper supports to stay on therapy,” said Adam Benjafield, a study co-author and ResMed’s vice president of Medical Affairs. “Regardless of why these gaps exist, we know they do, signaling the need to keep in close contact with patients in these populations.”
The study was conducted by medXcloud, a ResMed-assembled group of healthcare key opinion leaders, which examined de-identified data of 1,063,870 U.S. PAP users from ResMed’s remote monitoring network, AirView. PAP users must have also been registered for the myAir patient engagement tool.
“Overall, we see encouragingly high long-term adherence rates across all subgroups, compared to most other chronic medical therapies,” Benjafield said. “Sleep apnea is a chronic disease without a cure; therefore, staying adherent on PAP through the years is critical to preventing apneas, maintaining your good sleep and overall health.”