Quality of Life in Moderate-Severe OSA Patients from North-Eastern Romania

• Published in: Revista de cercetare şi intervenţie socialǎ Vol. 68; pp. 250 - 260
• Main Authors: ZOTA, Ioana Madalina, SASCAU, Radu Andy, STATESCU, Cristian, BOISTEANU, Daniela, ROCA, Mihai, LEON CONSTANTIN, Maria Magdalena, VASILCU, Teodor Flaviu, GAVRIL, Radu Sebastian, ANGHEL, Larisa, MITU, Ovidiu, COSTAN, Victor, CUMPAT, Carmen Marinela, MITU, Florin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; French; Romanian; Spanish
• Published: Iasi Editura Expert Projects (Expert Projects Publishing House) 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Low income groups; Patients; Quality of life; Sleep; Sleep apnea; Treatment compliance; Romania
• ISSN: 1583-3410; 1584-5397
• DOI: 10.33788/rcis.68.17

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common type of sleep disordered breathing, with a significant impact on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the gold-standard treatment for moderate-severe OSA, but is associated with poor patient compliance (due to financial issues and frequent side effects). The purpose of this study is to evaluate HR-QoL among patients with moderate-severe OSA from North-Eastern Romania, at baseline and after 2 months of CPAP. 75 patients were initially included in our study but only 59 subjects returned for a second evaluation. HR-QoL was assessed using the European Quality of Life 5 Domain questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L). OSA has a significant impact on quality of life in our group, with an average EQ-5D-5L index of 0.70±0.27 and an EQ-5D-5L Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of 63.71±17.74%. Short-term CPAP use was associated with a statistically significant improvement in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (Δ = 4.44, p4000 lei/month) decided to continue using the device, while the decision not to continue CPAP was significantly more frequent among patients with a low income (