- Explain to interested patients that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) needs compliance by patients to be of any benefit.
- This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
SALT LAKE CITY, June 22 — Adherence to treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) by patients with obstructive sleep apnea may be considerably less than believed.
A retrospective analysis of 528 new users of CPAP machines showed that only 17% were using them as prescribed, said Carl Stepnowsky, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Diego.
Another 63% "are below what we would usually consider to be acceptable, which is four hours a night," he reported here at Sleep 2006, the joint meeting of the Sleep Research Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Moreover, he said, the failure to use the machines properly appears to begin almost immediately.
