T-I-074 SLEEP ILLNESS REPRESENTATION AS A POTENTIAL BARRIER TO TREATMENT ADHERENCE IN OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA: A PILOT STUDY

Introduction and Objectives: Sleep apnea is a chronic disease with severe comorbidities and CPAP adherence is often suboptimal. Behavioral strategies have been shown to help patients accept their disease and encourage them to seek medical attention. Patient perceptions (e.g. cognition, emotion) are viewed as psychological correlates amenable to intervention. The impacts of these perceptions in sleep apnea remain unexplored. The aim of our study was to assess the patient’s sleep illness perceptions and to correlate them to the level of sleepiness, a determinant of disease severity and of CPAP adherence, in patients investigated for sleep apnea. Materials and Methods: Eleven patients (56±14 years; seven men) participated in our study. Sleepiness was measured by the ESS and illness representation by the Brief Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (BIPQ). Questionnaires were filled after the sleep studies. Elevated scores suggest a negative impact in the patient’s life. Results: In terms of cognition, our results suggest that patients believe they will live with the disease all their lives (8/10) and had a low perception of future treatment efficacy (4/10). In terms of emotion, they feel negatively affected by their illness (6.5/10) and their understanding for the latter is rather low (4.5/10). The results of the BIPQ (mean of 6/10±1) and the ESS (11/24±6) correlated positively (r=0.5, p=0.1). We also observed that patients without pathological sleepiness (6 patients, ESS 7/24±3) had better results on the BIPQ (4.6±7.6) compared to those with pathological sleepiness (ESS 16/24±5; BIPQ 5.5±9) (T-test p=0.01). Conclusion: Our study suggests that sleep illness perceptions are interesting avenues to understanding the coping behaviour of our patients and possibly treatment adherence. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings in patients with diagnosed and treated sleep apnea. Acknowledgements: Biron Soins du Sommeil for their constant support