Personality Correlates of Compliance with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for Treatment of Sleep Apnea

Abstract

Unlike many chronic illnesses with less than optimal treatment efficacy, the treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), is extremely efficacious. However, treatment compliance for OSA is a serious problem for a number of unclear reasons. Because OSA has serious consequences, ranging from daytime sleepiness to life threatening cardiovascular problems, researchers have attempted to identify noncompliant users and to create interventions that promote compliance. Despite the plethora of research, inconsistent and unreplicable results prevail. There appear to be no demographic or personality correlates that consistently predict compliance and researchers have struggled to find an intervention that is practical and effective. This thesis focuses on identifying personality correlates that may predict treatment compliance. Many traditional, frequently used personality inventories such as the MMPI-2 have been researched in conjunction with CPAP compliance prediction. Other inventories that focus on more specific aspects of personality, such as the BIS/BAS, which measures regulation of inhibitory and appetitive motives, have never been used in research on treatment compliance for any chronic disease. Similarly, the Ways of Coping (WAYS) inventory, which measures coping processes, has been used in one CPAP compliance study. This thesis utilizes the following inventories to predict CPAP compliance: a broad personality inventory that has been researched with chronic treatment regimens other than CPAP, the Mini IPIP, and two less researched and more specific inventories, the BIS/BAS and the WAYS.