Health Coaching for Positive Airway Pressure Adherence

Pilot of Brief Health Coaching Intervention to Improve Adherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy: Retroactive Analysis of a Quality Improvement Project

This study tested a low-resource, brief telephonic health coaching intervention to improve adherence to positive airway pressure therapy for treatment of sleep apnea.

We conducted post hoc analysis of a quality improvement initiative in which patients were randomly assigned to receive health coaching or usual care. Participants were English- and Spanish-speaking patients from a county-based public health system who had previously received a positive airway pressure device for the treatment of sleep apnea. An unlicensed, trained health coach called patients three times to resolve barriers to adherence. Adherence measures collected by device modem at baseline and 4 weeks were the primary outcome measures.

Inclusion Criteria:

• English- or Spanish-speaking
• At least 18 years of age
• Had previously received a modem-enabled positive airway pressure device for the treatment of sleep apnea
• Received care from the San Francisco General Hospital Sleep Clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not English- or Spanish-speaking
• Younger than 18 years
• Does not have phone number at which could be reached