Symptoms During CPAP Therapy Are the Major Reason for Contacting the Sleep Unit Between Two Routine Contacts

The demand for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy outpaces available resources in most health care settings. We sought to evaluate predictors of nonroutine CPAP follow-up visits to improve resource utilization.

We randomly analyzed 1,141 of the 2,446 patients who had received at least 1 year of CPAP therapy. Reasons for contacts, type (routine = R, nonroutine = NR), and mode (face-to-face or not, physician, nurse) were collected.

A total of 771 patients were classified R, and 370 NR. Age, profession, and sex did not affect the NR frequency. Symptoms increased the odds ratio for NR 12.1-fold, somnolence 34.8-fold, and suffocation at night 10.4-fold. Patients with nonroutine reasons abandoned CPAP therapy significantly (7.6-fold) more frequently than patients with routine reasons.

Symptoms during CPAP therapy predicted the nonroutine contacts well. In line with this, patients with symptoms have become a priority follow-up group, and could constitute the only follow-up policy when dealing with insufficient medical resources.