Association Between Sleep Apnea Treatment and Health Care Resource Use in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

Background Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) contributes to the generation, recurrence, and perpetuation of atrial fibrillation, and it is associated with worse outcomes. Little is known about the economic impact of OSA therapy in atrial fibrillation. This retrospective cohort study assessed the impact of positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy adherence on health care resource use and costs in patients with OSA and atrial fibrillation. Methods and Results Insurance claims data for ≥1 year before sleep testing and 2 years after device setup were linked with objective PAP therapy use data. PAP adherence was defined from an extension of the US Medicare 90‐day definition. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to create covariate‐balanced PAP adherence groups to mitigate confounding. Of 5867 patients (32% women; mean age, 62.7 years), 41% were adherent, 38% were intermediate, and 21% were nonadherent. Mean±SD number of all‐cause emergency department visits (0.61±1.21 versus 0.77±1.55 [P=0.023] versus 0.95±1.90 [P