A systematic review of smartphone applications and devices for obstructive sleep apnea

OBJECTIVE: Sleep is fundamental for both health and wellness. The advent of “on a chip” and “smartphone” technologies have created an explosion of inexpensive, at-home applications and devices specifically addressing sleep health and sleep disordered breathing. Sleep-related smartphone Applications and devices are offering diagnosis, management, and treatment of a variety of sleep disorders, mainly obstructive sleep apnea. New technology requires both a learning curve and a review of reliability. Our objective was to evaluate which app have scientific publications as well as their potential to help in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of sleep disordered breathing. METHODS: We search for relevant sleep apnea related apps on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. In addition, an exhaustive literature search was carried out in MEDLINE, EMBase, web of science and Scopus for works of apps or devices that have published in the scientific literature and have been used in a clinical setting for diagnosis or treatment of sleep disordered breathing performing a systematic review. RESULTS: We found 10 smartphone apps that met the inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The development of these apps and devices has a great future, but today are not as accurate as other traditional options. This new technology offers accessible, inexpensive, and continuous at home data monitoring of obstructive sleep apnea, but still does not count with proper testing and their validation may be unreliable.