Mobile health application to support CPAP therapy in obstructive sleep apnoea: design, feasibility and perspectives.

Background: Current continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices can be monitored remotely; however, in-person visits are kept for clinical follow-up in order to promote CPAP use and resolve potential side-effects. Mobile health is a promising way to provide remote and easy clinical control for CPAP follow-up and support. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptance by obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients and healthcare professionals of a newly designed mobile app (Appnea-Q) to promote clinical control through a self-monitoring tool for patients with CPAP supervised by sleep professionals.
Methods: Appnea-Q incorporates a simple follow-up questionnaire with automated responses, together with frequent problems and lifestyle recommendations sections. Feasibility, acceptance and usefulness were assessed. First, an internal validation was performed during outpatient CPAP follow-up visits with sleep professionals from various sleep units. Second, an external validation was performed in a subgroup of 15 patients at home.
Results: Most patients (n=75) considered the app useful and were willing to use it and recommend it (72-88%). Up to 64.87% agreed on its capacity to reduce hospital visits. Appnea-Q was rated as acceptable (79.37±19.29) by the system usability score. Sleep professionals (n=30) concurred on its usefulness for OSA patient follow-up, particularly during the first month of CPAP therapy. The external validation showed its feasibility among 11 out of 15 patients and their data were received accordingly on the professionals' web platform.
Conclusions: According to our validation process, and the viewpoints of the patients and professionals, our new mobile app is a feasible and well-received tool for personal OSA management. Future clinical trials should substantiate its performance and cost-effectiveness in the clinical arena.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: M. Suarez-Giron has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: O. Garmendia has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: V. Lugo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C. Ruiz has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: N. Salord has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: X. Alsina has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Farre reports contracts between the University of Barcelona, ResMed and ANTADIR to evaluate CPAP devices at the bench. Conflict of interest: J.M. Montserrat reports an official government grant from the Ministry of Economy Industry and Competitiveness, and that Philips Respironics supported one of the researchers. Conflict of interest: M. Torres has nothing to disclose.
(Copyright ©ERS 2020.)