Any Effective Intervention to Improve CPAP Adherence in Children with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Systematic Review

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children is leading to several consequences as reported in adults. A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is one of the effective treatments in pediatric OSA. However, the CPAP adherence rate is approximately 50%. This study aimed to evaluate if any interventions that improve CPAP adherence in pediatric patients with OSA using a systematic review. We included intervention studies on CPAP adherence in pediatric patients with OSA regardless of machine types. Five databases were used for article searching. Search terms included OSA, adherence, compliance, and CPAP. The outcomes of this study were adherence rate and usage hours/minutes. The outcomes were compared between the intervention and comparator groups with descriptive statistics. There were 2931 articles from 5-database searching. There were 41 articles related with children. There were 7 articles conducted with any intervention on CPAP compliance. Of those, 4 studies included in the analysis. There were 3 significant differences between both groups in 2 studies. Those with caregiver support had significantly longer CPAP use/night by 86.60 minutes (95% CI 10.90, 162.30) and percentage of CPAP usage more than 4 hours/night by 18.10% (95% CI 3.87, 32.33) than those without caregiver support. Those who received BPAP therapy had higher chance of good PAP adherence than those who received CPAP by 18.17 times (95% CI 5.19, 63.70). Caregiver support and BPAP therapy significantly improved CPAP adherence in children with OSA. Further studies are required to add additional comparisons and also other interventions.