Time course of hospitalizations in patients with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease around sleep-disordered-breathing diagnosis.

Purpose: In heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) populations, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with impaired health outcomes. We evaluated whether in patients with HF, concomitant HF and COPD or COPD, the number of hospitalizations would be reduced in the year after testing for SDB with and without treatment initiation compared to the year before.

Methods: We performed a multicentre retrospective study of 390 consecutive sleep-clinic patients who had a primary diagnosis of chronic HF, HF and COPD or COPD and a secondary diagnosis of SDB. The date of SDB-testing was defined as the index date. Data on healthcare utilization was extracted for the 12-month period prior to and after this date.

Results: The initiation of adaptive servoventilation (ASV) and non-invasive ventilation (NIV) treatment resulted in a statistically significant reduction in the number of hospitalisations. While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment also demonstrated a reduction in hospitalisations, the observed effect did not reach the level of statistical significance. After accounting for demographics and comorbidities in multivariable regression analyses, only NIV was significantly associated with a reduction in hospitalizations, while CPAP or ASV were not. NIV appears to be underutilized in COPD.

Conclusions: Our data indicate, that patients with HF or COPD and concomitant SDB may benefit from the initiation of appropriate PAP-therapy. Whether treating SDB in HF- and COPD-patients influences healthcare utilization merits further investigation.