Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Aug 2, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 22, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 23, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Myofunctional Therapy App for Severe Apnea–Hypopnea Sleep Obstructive Syndrome: A Randomized prospective trial-
ABSTRACT
Background:
Rationale: Myofunctional therapy has demonstrated efficacy for treating sleep-disordered breathing. We assessed the clinical use of a new mobile health (mHealth) app that teaches patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) to perform oropharyngeal exercises using their smartphone.
Objective:
To examine the effects of the app in patients with severe OSAHS
Methods:
Forty patients with severe OSAHS (apnea–hypoxia index (AHI) > 30) were enrolled prospectively and randomized into an intervention group that used the app for 90 sessions or a control group. Anthropometric measures, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (0–24), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (0–21), and Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) scores, O2 desaturation index, were obtained before and after the intervention.
Results:
: After the intervention, 28 patients remained. No significant changes were observed in the control group. The intervention group showed significant improvements. AHI decreased 53.36% from 44.7 (33.8–55.6) to 20.88 (14.02–27.7) events/h (P < 0.00001). Oxygen desaturation index decreased 46.5% from 36.31 (27.19–43.43) to 19.4 (12.9–25.98) events/h (P = 0.003). IOPI maximum tongue score increased from 39.83 (35.32–45.20) to 59.06 (54.74–64.00) kPa (P = 0.0001). IOPI maximum lip score increased from 27.89 (24.16–32.47) to 44.11 (39.5–48.80) kPa (P = 0.0003). The AHI correlated significantly with IOPI tongue and lip improvements (Pearson –0.560, P = 0.00001 and –0.460, P = 0.0001, respectively).
Conclusions:
Orofacial exercises performed using an mHealth app reduce OSAHS severity and symptoms, and represent a promising treatment for OSAHS. Clinical Trial: Spanish Gov identifier: AWGAPN-2019-01 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04438785
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