Home Non-Invasive Ventilation Fails to Improve Quality of Life in the Elderly: Results from a Multicenter Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Home non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is a widely used treatment for chronic hypoventilation but little is known on its impact in the elderly. In a multicenter prospective cohort study, we studied tolerance and efficacy of domiciliary NIV in patients aged 75 or more compared to younger ones. METHODS AND RESULTS: 264 patients with at least a six-month follow-up were analyzed. Among them, 82 were elderly. In the elderly and the younger, we found an improvement of arterial blood gas, the Epworth sleepiness scale and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index at 6 months. Mean daily use of NIV at 6 months was 7 hours and the rate of non-adherent patients was similar in both group. Health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessed by SF-36 questionnaires did not change significantly after NIV initiation in the elderly whereas HRQL improved in the less than 75. On univariate analysis, we found that diabetes was a predictive factor for non-adherence in the elderly (Odds ratio: 3.95% confidence interval: 1.06–8.52). CONCLUSION: NIV was efficient in the elderly while evaluation at 6 months showed a good adherence but failed to improve HRQL.