Adherence and Effectiveness of Positional Therapy for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to explore how adherence to a positional therapy intervention affected therapeutic outcome in participants with positional-related obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Eighteen adult participants identified as having positional-related obstructive sleep apnea by an initial overnight polysomnography study were recruited. Participants were instructed to use a “tennis ball technique” positional device for three weeks at home and record their sleep habits and adherence before a final post-treatment polysomnography evaluation. A repeated measures MANOVA found significant effects of treatment between pre- and post-test on the objective polysomnography variables of Total Recording Time [F(1,17) = 5.21, p<.05, η²=.24], Total Sleep Time [F(1,17) = 8.59, p<.01, η²=.34], Sleep Efficiency [F(1,17) = 5.42, p<.05, η²=.24], Total REM sleep time [F(1,17) = 9.91, p<.01, η²=.37], and the Apnea- Hypopnea Index [F(1,17) = 14.28, p<.001, η²=.46]. Sleep onset latency was not statistically significant. There were significant effects of treatment on the subjective measures of the Functional Outcome of Sleep Quality [F(1,17) = 8.92, p<.01, η²=.35], Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [F(1,17) = 11.2, p<.01, η²=..39], Epworth Sleepiness Scale [F(1,17) = 6.69, p<.05, η²=.28], and the Brief Symptom Inventory [F(1,17) = 5.14, p<.05, η²=.23]. No significant interaction effects were found between treatment and adherence when participants were grouped post-hoc into an adherent or non-adherent categories based on their self-reported daily log data. In summary, the results of this study indicated that the positional device was efficacious for significantly improving both objective polysomnography variables and subjective variables of sleep. The results also indicated even partially adherent participants reported significant improvements in nighttime sleep quality and quality of life after the three week treatment period. Mixed Linear Modeling demonstrated that significant improvements in sleep quality, time to sleep onset, and total sleep time were not seen until the last weeks of treatment. This study found very acceptable adherence rates with this positional device design; all participants were able to utilize the therapeutic device on at least a portion of every night during the three-week intervention.