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Effects of patient education and progressive muscle relaxation alone or combined on adherence to continuous positive airway pressure treatment in obstructive sleep apnea patients

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of patient education and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) alone or combined on adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients.

Methods

One hundred and fifty-two Han Chinese OSA patients were randomly assigned to a control group (C), an education group (E), a PMR group (P), and an education + PMR group (E + P), with 38 patients each group. The adherence to CPAP was defined as 4 or more hours of CPAP usage per night and at least 9 of each 14 nights of ventilator use. The CPAP adherence rates, cumulative patient dropout rates, CPAP usage, and scores of daytime sleepiness, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression were compared among the groups at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of intervention.

Results

All study groups were comparable in baseline characteristics. Group E + P showed significant improvement in CPAP adherence, daytime sleepiness, and sleep quality compared with group C at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of intervention. Compared with group C, group E only showed significant improvement in CPAP adherence, daytime sleepiness, and sleep quality at 4 weeks of intervention, while group P showed no significant improvement over time. Scores of anxiety and depression were significantly improved in group E + P compared with group C at 12 weeks of intervention.

Conclusions

Combined intervention with patient education and PMR can significantly improve CPAP adherence in OSA patients for at least 12 weeks. The intervention paradigm may serve as an important reference for future studies on CPAP adherence.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Science and Technology Bureau of Hunan Province, People’s Republic of China (grant number 2011-FJ3292).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Central South University, No. 172 Tongzipo Road, Changsha, Hunan, 410013, People’s Republic of China

    Weihong Wang & Guoping He

  2. First Affiliated Hospital, Nanhua University, Hengyang, People’s Republic of China

    Meirong Wang

  3. School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China

    Weihong Wang, Lihua Liu & Huaqing Tang

Authors
  1. Weihong Wang
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  2. Guoping He
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  3. Meirong Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guoping He.

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Supplementary Table S1

Group education topics in the study (DOC 22 kb)

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Wang, W., He, G., Wang, M. et al. Effects of patient education and progressive muscle relaxation alone or combined on adherence to continuous positive airway pressure treatment in obstructive sleep apnea patients. Sleep Breath 16, 1049–1057 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-011-0600-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-011-0600-3

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