AHRQ report?

[eok361]

yes, i've gone way too far down the rabbit hole regarding CPAP since i got my new resmed machine, replacing my old philips system one. 

along my internet travels i've seen a few pages linking a couple studies concluding that CPAP isn't nearly effective at treating everything it claims, and has no measurable long-term benefits, to some degree. 

the main paper mentioned is the AHRQ report. 

i'm assuming it's a lightning rod topic in these forums. i tried a search of this forum to find any threads on it, but the search tool didn't find any. 

am i safe in my assumption? i--myself--have been using CPAP for years. i never had issues with compliance, but i do have to admit that since i started, i have developed hypertension, and just this week had to have some stents put in. 

obviously my lifestyle and genetics played the major role in the latter, and probably the former as well. 

i do know that if nothing else, i don't wake up choking and gagging anymore since starting therapy. for that alone, i still use CPAP nightly. 

i'm just interested to see if anyone has read that paper. you probably all have, and i'm just late to the dance.

[pholynyk]

I've never heard of an AHRQ report, and I have no idea which paper you are referring to.

I think it's safe to say it is not a hot topic here.

[Crimson Nape]

Boy!, you did go down the rabbit hole.  I had never heard of this group before your posting.  AHRQ stands for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  It seems they are a think-tank out of Rockville, Maryland.  The only paper I could find is now archived and was conducted sometime after 2014 and was published in 2017.   With it being archived, leads me to believe that it is no longer valid.

Here is a snippet of the test:

Four study sizes ranged from 43 to 1033 participants, and studies were generally conducted in participants with underlying conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or Alzheimer disease or in persons with symptoms.

Of course, it is on the internet, so it still must be true.      

As we age, stuff happens. That is a fact of life.    

- Red

[eok361]

thanks for pointing out that it isn't even a major topic here. i have no way of knowing if it was a valid paper or not. looks like it may have been less than an ideal study.