Use Of CPAP Machines Being Questioned - Again!

This seems to be saying something that an earlier article stated. Since it's a new article, I will open a new conversation (even if it's the same old study).

Of course, the subjects spent as little as three hours per night on CPAP, which is not even Medicare compliant! Also, the study really only addressed stroke and heart attack, so even is it doesn't help with these, there are numerous other benefits from use.

Publishing such flawed studies is creating excuses for non-compliance, which is a danger to public heath and safety.


Link ===> http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/12/ ... uestioned/

Anyone who wishes to comment on this story should go to https://www.facebook.com/CBSPittsburgh and scroll slightly more than halfway down to find the story. Or you can use the search function to insert "C-PAP machines" which will also take you to it.

49er

Garbage In, Garbage Out, but we wasted our time on this study so by golly we're going to publish the results even though our data is fatally flawed by our CPAP treatment group not actually using their CPAPs.

It might have been an interesting study, does CPAP usage affect cardiac health?

But when your control group doesn't have CPAPs, and your treatment group doesn't use them, what do you hope to learn?

I don't think you can ethically conduct a study of this nature.
For the results to be viable, you'll need a few thousand people whose OSA requires them to be on CPAP, and you'll need to deny CPAPs to half of them. If you use people who don't really need CPAP, your compliance is going to be low in the treatment group, and the ones who do comply aren't going to see the usual benefits.

Taxmantoo wrote:. . .

I don't think you can ethically conduct a study of this nature.
For the results to be viable, you'll need a few thousand people whose OSA requires them to be on CPAP, and you'll need to deny CPAPs to half of them. If you use people who don't really need CPAP, your compliance is going to be low in the treatment group, and the ones who do comply aren't going to see the usual benefits.

I think that you're right, there is a big ethical question mark in having control subjects not use CPAP. However, it might be OK to studythose who adamantly refuse to use CPAP as the control group (although even that could prejudice the results).

The 1954 Salk polio vaccine trial is still used as an experimental design model in statistics classes, but always with the caveat : "We can't do it like this now".

One big ethical problem was that the placebo controlled elements of the study had to be totally blind, if researchers (or even treating physicians) knew who received the vaccine it could color their diagnosis and invalidate the results. How would you like to have a sick kid and your family doctor doesn't know whether your kid has had an experimental vaccine?

(polio diagnosis isn't very exact, after 50 years we still don't know if I had poliomyelitis or cerebral palsy, whichever it was my case was relatively mild)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114166/