%0 Journal Article
%T Patient Perspective on Use of an Interactive Website for Sleep Apnea
%A Carl Stepnowsky
%A Christine Edwards
%A Tania Zamora
%A Robert Barker
%A Zia Agha
%J International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/239382
%X Incomplete patient adherence with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) limits the effectiveness of treatment and results in suboptimal obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) outcomes. An interactive website specifically designed for patients with OSA was designed and utilized in a randomized clinical trial to test its effect on increasing CPAP adherence. The goal of this paper is to report on CPAP adherence, internet use, privacy concerns and user satisfaction in using the website. The original project was designed as a randomized, controlled clinical trial of Usual Care (UC, control) versus MyCPAP group (intervention). Questionnaires were administered to evaluate the patient perspective of using the MyCPAP website. Participation in the MyCPAP intervention resulted in higher CPAP adherence at the two-month time point relative to participation in the UC group (3.4£¿£¿¡À£¿£¿2.4 and 4.1£¿£¿¡À£¿£¿2.3£¿hrs/nt; ; mean£¿£¿¡À£¿£¿SD). Participants randomized to the MyCPAP website increased their use of the internet to obtain OSA related information, but did not increase their use of the internet to get information on general health or medical conditions. Users had very little concern about their CPAP data being viewed daily or being sent over the internet. Future studies should consider the use of newer evaluation criteria for collaborative adaptive interactive technologies. 1. Introduction Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disorder characterized by repeated cessations of breathing during sleep, which can result in a number of potentially serious consequences affecting cardiovascular, physiological, neurocognitive, emotional, and psychosocial functioning [1]. OSA is the most common sleep disorder, affecting about 4% of men and 2% of women aged from 30 to 70 years old in the USA [2]. OSA is a chronic disease that is estimated to contribute 3 billion in additional medical costs in the USA, with a total economic burden greater than 100 billion when including loss of workplace productivity, occupational injury, and greater health care utilization [3]. In addition to its economic burden, OSA is associated with serious long-term adverse health consequences such as hypertension [4], metabolic dysfunction [5], cardiovascular disease [6], neurocognitive deficits [7], and motor vehicle accidents [8]. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) [9] is the treatment of choice for OSA [10], with meta-analytic reports of numerous randomized controlled trials showing that CPAP improves both objectively and subjectively measured daytime sleepiness [11] as well as health-related
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijta/2013/239382/