COVID-19 pandemic changed the mode of service delivery for Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients. Decisions related to the interventions, including Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) were taken in telephone clinics compared to conventional face to face appointments.

Aim To look at the impact of new service mode delivery on OSA syndrome management.

Study Population and Methods Patients were randomly selected from all newly diagnosed OSA cases attending sleep and ventilation clinic. One hundred ten patients were selected in the Pre-COVID group (June 2019 to February 2020) and 98 in the Post-COVID (June 2020 to January 2021).

Compliance reports were generated 30 days post CPAP trial. Demographic and clinical data were analysed. Mann-Whitney U and ANOVA tests were used for nonparametric data, and chi-square test for parametric data.

Results CPAP compliance (measured as% of CPAP usage >4 hours/night) on 30 days data were slightly higher in post-COVID group (median 57.0, IQR 85) compared to pre-COVID group (median 38.5, IQR 69); p= 0.141. Average hours of CPAP usage were significantly higher in the post-COVID group (median 4.46, IQR 5.40) than the pre-COVID group (median 3.02, IQR 5.06); p-value 0.034 (table 1). There were trends supporting better compliance among female patients, British white ethnicity and those with moderate and severe OSA, but this did not reach any statistical significance. Compliance was significantly high in patients with high ESS and those on an antidepressant in the Pre-COVID group (p=0.049 and 0.03, respectively). Twelve patients returned CPAP among pre-COVID (n=110) compared to 14 of post-COVID (n=98) (p=0.531) (table 2).

Conclusion The study showed CPAP compliance of telephonic clinic consultation was slightly better compared to conventional clinic consultation. This new virtual clinic model can be adopted successfully during the challenging COVID times.