Dr. Lichuan Ye has been granted funding for her NIH R01 project “OurSleepKit: A Couple-focused mHealth Tool to Support Adherence to CPAP Treatment”.
The goal of the 5-year project is to refine and test a dyadic mobile health intervention to improve adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. According to Ye’s project summary, poor adherence to CPAP treatment remains the largest impediment to effective management for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
“The partners of patients play a significant role – either positive or negative – in CPAP adherence, and are part of all of the major facilitative aspects and barriers to CPAP use,” the summary says. “…The goal of OurSleepKit is to coach mutual engagement and model positive partner involvement in CPAP treatment, thus motivating greater CPAP adherence.”
A hurdle to get through is getting users to engage with an mHealth tool. For this project, Ye’s team says they will:
- Refine OurSleepKit using qualitative methods within a standardized iterative participatory approach by working with end users (OSA patients and their partners)
- Examine the effectiveness of OurSleepKit on CPAP adherence by conducting a 6-month randomized parallel group controlled trial in 180 couples (newly diagnosed OSA patients and their partners)
- Evaluate user engagement in the intervention group by tracking objective OurSleepKit usage and understanding the subjective user experience.
Results from Ye’s project will “support the development of an effective and engaging mHealth tool which can be readily adopted by OSA patients and their partners to support adherence to CPAP treatment.”
