Research Article CPAP Treatment Adherence in Women with Obstructive Sleep Apnea E. Libman, 1,2 S. Bailes, 1,2 C. S. Fichten, 1,2,3 D. Rizzo, 1,4 L. Creti, 1,2 M. Baltzan, 2,5,6 R. Grad, 1,2 A. Pavilanis, 2,7 D.-L. Tran, 1,4 K. Conrod, 1 and R. Amsel 2 1 Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada 2 McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada 3 Dawson College, Montreal, QC, Canada 4 Universit´ e de Montr´ eal, Montreal, QC, Canada 5 Mount Sinai Hospital Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada 6 OSR Medical, Montreal, QC, Canada 7 St. Mary’s Hospital Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada Correspondence should be addressed to E. Libman; eva.libman@mcgill.ca Received 15 November 2016; Accepted 29 January 2017; Published 2 March 2017 Academic Editor: Yuan-Yang Lai Copyright © 2017 E. Libman et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Untreated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has numerous negative health-related consequences. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is generally considered the treatment of choice for OSA, but rates of nonadherence are high. It is believed that OSA is more prevalent among men; therefore understanding how OSA presents among women is limited and treatment adherence has received little research attention. For this study, 29 women were recruited from primary care ofces. Tey completed a questionnaire battery and underwent a night of nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) followed by a visit with a sleep specialist. Women diagnosed with OSA were prescribed CPAP; 2 years later CPAP adherence was evaluated. Results show that approximately half the sample was adherent. Tere were no signifcant diferences between adherent and nonadherent women on OSA severity; however CPAP adherent women had worse nocturnal and daytime functioning scores at the time of diagnosis. Moreover, when the seven nocturnal and daytime variables were used as predictors in a discriminant analysis, they could predict 87% of adherent and 93% of the nonadherent women. Te single most important predictor was nonrefreshing sleep. We discuss the implications of the fndings for identifying women in primary care with potential OSA and ofer suggestions for enhancing treatment adherence. 1. Introduction Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic disorder of the upper respiratory system characterized by repetitive collapse of the upper airway during sleep. Tis results in hypoxemia, increased sympathetic overdrive, increased blood pressure, and increased carbon dioxide levels in the blood; the resulting hypoxia is linked to a wide range of problems stemming from oxidative stress and infammation and is associated with multiple cardiovascular morbidities, as well as coronary artery-related and all-cause mortality [1–14]. OSA is closely related to the metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes; the nature of these and OSA may be bidirectional [8]. Estimated prevalence of OSA in the adult population is high, although estimates vary widely according to the sample and diagnostic threshold selected. For example, in a general population sample of 40- to 65-year-old Icelanders, Arnardottir and colleagues found an overall prevalence of 43%, with difering frequencies when participants were char- acterized as mild, moderate, or severe OSA [15]. Similarly, in a systematic review, Senaratna and colleagues reported an overall population prevalence of between 9% and 38% for very mild OSA; prevalence and severity increased with age to reach 90% in some elderly groups, with a higher prevalence in men [16]. Te higher male to female ratio has been refected in other studies, roughly two to one. For example, reported OSA prevalence in the general American population was 23.4% Hindawi Sleep Disorders Volume 2017, Article ID 2760650, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2760650