Changes in the Levels of Anxiety and Depression in the Couples of Patients with Sleep Apnea after One Year of CPAP Therapy

Introduction: Couples of patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSA)perceive their relationships as more stressful and their perception of leisure and enjoyment is lower. Sleeping with someone who snores is not only annoying, but also unhealthy.Objective: To asses the emotional changes in the partners of patients with OSA after one year of CPAP use.Material and Methods: Comparative longitudinal study of 102 pairs of patients with a possible OSA diagnosis medium-severe OSA with prescription of CPAP from January 2018 to October 2019 . In the second phase of the study , it was necessary too use CPAP for more than four hours every day and their partners did not have psycotropic drugs. Therefore , the N decreased to 52. Female couples 85,7%.The mean age was 48.60+/-8.99for the couples. Emotional variables were analyzed through the HAD questionnaire (depression and anxiety) ,we also included a likert scale evaluating the impact of OSA in couples created by our research team. The quality of life was evaluated with the SF-36 questionnaire. For the statistical processing and analysis of the data we have used SPSS program.Results: After one year of CPAP therapy ,the couples of OSA patients showed a decreased in the levels of anxiety and depression (P<0.01). 90% of the couples reported that the use of CPAP by the patients has helped a lot to improve their own state of health, highlighting the non-interruption of their sleep due to their snoring of the patient.Conclusions: Couples after one year of CPAP treatment showed improvement in their mood. The results obtained suggest that treating the patient improves the quality of sleep for both. Implementation Science/Service Development Research Ideas on Respiratory Conditions and Tobacco Dependency Abstract Declaration of Interest References and Clinical Trial Registry Information