Impact of nasal continuous positive airway pressure treatment on quality of life in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea

Abstract

Quality-of-life (QoL) issues have become increasingly important in health care practice and research. Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) results in an especially serious reduction in QoL. The purpose of this study was to measure the QoL (life satisfaction) of OSAS patients treated with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). We aimed to determine whether and to what extent the QoL of OSAS patients using nCPAP differs from that of randomly selected subjects without this disorder. The QoL of 67 patients treated for at least 3 months with nCPAP, 21 OSAS patients at the time of OSAS diagnosis, and 113 randomly selected persons visiting the hospital (controls) was investigated with the help of the Munich life-quality dimension list (MLDL), an instrument for cognitive assessment of elementary components (physical condition, psyche, social life, everyday life) of QoL. It was found that QoL of OSAS patients treated with nCPAP did not significantly differ from that of control subjects with regard to elementary components. The 21 untreated OSAS patients showed significantly lower scores in all four subcategories: physical condition (p<0.0005), psyche (p<0.01), social life (p<0.0005) and everyday life (p<0.007). Thus, it may be concluded that nasal continuous positive airway pressure therapy has an important impact on the quality of life of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients, and signifies a further advantage in addition to clinical aspects. Treated patients are as satisfied or dissatisfied with their life as persons without this illness.

Disorders of Sleep and Wake in Patients After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

“…These sleep disturbances affect QoL, 4,5 and treatment of these disorders of sleep and wake can improve QoL. 6,7 We performed a survey of the frequency and severity of specific sleep disturbances in patients who have survived an episode of SAH. Additionally, we investigated the relation between sleep disturbances or excessive daytime sleepiness and the QoL at least 1 year after SAH.…”

Effect of Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy on Health-related Quality of Life in Sleep Apnoea Patients Treated in the Routine Clinical Setting of a University Hospital

“…For example, in a wellplanned randomized study by Profant et al, 33 patients in both the control group and the nCPAP group showed only minor improvement in quality of life. In the study by Bolitscheck et al, 30 OSAS patients benefited from nCPAP when evaluated using other criteria, but failed to show an improvement in HRQoL.…”

“…This is in accordance with earlier findings from Austria. 30 In light of the fact that the nCPAP patients were, according to self-reported HRQoL, clearly affected by their disease, the minimal effect of treatment is rather surprising. That the study population was unselected and included patients with milder disease may help to explain the disappointing result.…”

Sleep-disordered breathing and self-reported general health status in Thai patients

“…This questionnaire is a generic tool for assessment of QOL in eight domains of health status. Others used in the literature are Euro-QOL [30], general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) [34], Functional limitations profile (FLP) [30], hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) [31,34], Munich life-quality domain list (MLDL) [28], Nottingham health profile (NHP) [31], sickness impact profile (SIP) [24], and sleep apnea quality of life index (SAQLI) [35].…”

“…Treatment consists of weight reduction, body positioning during sleep, dental appliances, medical [16], and surgical treatment [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The most widely used and most effective treatment of OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy [25][26][27][28][29].…”