A phone call cures Sleep Apnea (weird)

Sleep apnea is a life-threatening disease. It’s also very difficult to treat.

A new study published in the journal Sleep reveals a simple solution. One that just requires a phone call without talking.

I actually should say it’s difficult to treat sleep apnea. There is a very effective treatment called positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy.

However, sticking to PAP therapy can be challenging. And strangely, it seems to be especially difficult for Black and Hispanic patients.

Here’s the problem: many previous studies have found that Black and Hispanic people struggle more than their white counterparts to adhere to PAP therapy, meaning that their condition is often left untreated and their symptoms are worse.

But the issue isn’t even race-specific. Some people just really struggle with PAP because it’s so uncomfortable.

To respond to this problem, researchers wondered whether automated telemonitoring could help them stick to the treatment more faithfully.

The Tele-OSA trial, conducted by Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, California, included 556 patients with sleep apnea.

These patients were new to PAP therapy, which they were all told to use, and were divided into two groups: one received usual care, and the other received telemonitoring.

The telemonitoring group received automated messages through the U-Sleep system by ResMed, which encouraged them to use their PAP devices more consistently.

The study firstly found that Black and Hispanic patients consistently used their PAP devices for fewer minutes per night compared to non-B/H patients.

Here’s a breakdown of the results over two years.

1. At 3–6 months: 170.9 vs. 195.5 minutes per night.
2. At 6–12 months: 144.2 vs. 167.1 minutes per night.
3. At 12–18 months: 128.0 vs. 158.9 minutes per night.
4. At 18–24 months: 119.5 vs. 148.1 minutes per night.

It secondly found that the telemonitoring intervention improved adherence among Black and Hispanic patients to the point where they used it more than their non-B/H peers did.

1. At 3–6 months: 251.8 vs. 235.2 minutes per night.
2. At 6–12 months: 211.2 vs. 204.9 minutes per night.
3. At 12–18 months: 190.4 vs. 180.3 minutes per night.
4. At 18–24 months: 163.3 vs. 158.9 minutes per night.

So, this study confirms that a telemonitoring intervention can close the gap between people who don’t use PAP regularly enough and those who do. In fact, they ended up with even higher adherence rates after the telemonitoring than those who didn’t really have an adherence problem.

This finding is crucial because better adherence to PAP therapy means better management of sleep apnea and related health issues.

You don’t even have to wait for your doctor to provide telemonitoring. An agreement with a friend or your spouse to remind you at night and check with you in the morning might nudge you towards better adherence.

Fortunately, there is a much simpler way to get rid of your sleep apnea and snoring as soon as tonight. And it takes as little as three minutes. You can do this now, as we explain here…