• Nick A Antic, Catherine Buchan, Adrian Esterman, Michael Hensley, Matthew T Naughton, Sharn Rowland, Bernadette Williamson, Samantha Windler, Simon Eckermann, and R Doug McEvoy.
• Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health, RGH, 202-16 Daws Road, Daw Park, SA 5041, Australia. nick.antic@health.sa.gov.au
• Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2009 Mar 15;179(6):501-8.

RationaleObstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent disease. Often limited clinical resources result in long patient waiting lists. Simpler validated methods of care are needed.ObjectivesTo demonstrate that a nurse-led model of care can produce health outcomes in symptomatic moderate-severe OSA not inferior to physician-led care.MethodsA randomized controlled multicenter noninferiority clinical trial was performed. Of 1,427 potentially eligible patients at 3 centers, 882 consented to the trial. Of these, 263 were excluded on the basis of clinical criteria. Of the remaining 619, 195 met home oximetry criteria for high-probability moderate-severe OSA and were randomized to 2 models of care: model A, the simplified model, using home autoadjusting positive airway pressure to set therapeutic continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), with all care supervised by an experienced nurse; and model B, involving two laboratory polysomnograms to diagnose and treat OSA, with clinical care supervised by a sleep physician. The primary end point was change in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score after 3 months of CPAP. Other outcome measures were collected.Measurements And Main ResultsFor the primary outcome change in ESS score, nurse-led management was no worse than physician-led management (4.02 vs. 4.15; difference, -0.13; 95% confidence interval: -1.52, 1.25) given a prespecified noninferiority margin of -2 for the lower 95% confidence interval. There were also no differences between both groups in CPAP adherence at 3 months or other outcome measures. Within-trial costs were significantly less in model A.ConclusionsA simplified nurse-led model of care has demonstrated noninferior results to physician-directed care in the management of symptomatic moderate-severe OSA, while being less costly. Clinical trial registered with http://www.anzctr.org.au (ACTRN012605000064606).

17 keywords...

hide…