Hong Kong Med J 2007;13(Suppl 3):S44-6
Randomised controlled study of treatment for mild and moderate sleep apnoea
M Ip, L Yam, C Lam, K Sam
Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong
 
 
1. We have validated a Chinese version of the Sleep Apnoea Quality of Life Index, a disease-specific healthrelated quality of life (HRQOL) instrument, for use in health care research of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in a Cantonese-speaking Chinese population. This instrument may be further adapted to suit Chinese populations whose main dialect is not Cantonese.
2. For treatment of mild and moderate OSA, using nasal continuous positive airway pressure or an oral appliance (OA) in addition to weight control will achieve improvements in terms of sleep parameters, daytime sleepiness, and HRQOL.
3. Continuous positive airway pressure is superior to OAs with respect to the first two parameters, but similar to OA in terms of HRQOL improvement.
4. For the treatments of mild and moderate OSA, lifestyle modification measures, in particular weight reduction, should be implemented for all overweight patients. However, only about half of them will achieve a degree of weight reduction over 10 weeks and associated reduction of sleep-disordered breathing events, and even then control of such events is usually incomplete.
5. Factors other than treatment effectiveness as demonstrated by physiological and neurobehavioural outcome measures affect the patient’s choice of treatment modality; such factors include subjective considerations, convenience, and cost.