The role of CPAP treatment in elderly patients with moderate obstructive sleep apnoea: a multicentre randomised controlled trial

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of CPAP treatment in elderly patients with moderate OSA in terms of clinical, quality-of-life and neurocognitive measures. This was an open-label, randomised, multicentre clinical trial in 145 elderly patients (≥70 years old) with confirmed moderate OSA (apnoea–hypopnoea index 15–29.9 events·h–1) randomised to receive CPAP (n=73) or no CPAP (n=72) for 3 months. The primary end-point was the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score, and the secondary end-points included quality of life (Quebec Sleep Questionnaire (QSQ) domain scores), sleep-related symptoms, presence of anxiety/depression, office-based blood pressure measurements and some neurocognitive tests. The analysis was performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Mean±sd age was 74.9±4.6 years. The CPAP group achieved a greater improvement in the ESS score (adjusted difference of 2.6 (95% CI 3.6–1.6) points; effect size 1) in some sleep-related symptoms and in some dimensions of the QSQ questionnaire (nocturnal symptoms: –0.7 (95% CI –0.3––1.0) points; p<0.0001 and emotions: –0.4 (95% CI –0.1––0.7) points; p=0.023). However, CPAP did not demonstrate any effect on either neurocognitive tests (including anxiety and depression) or blood pressure levels. There was a positive correlation between the effect of CPAP and the improvement in ESS scores and ...
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Sleep medicine Original Articles: Sleep Source Type: research