Patient-reported benefit and burden of home noninvasive ventilation

Introduction: Little is known about subjective perception of benefit and burden of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in patients on home NIV, and the association of benefit perception and adherence to NIV. Methods: Consecutive patients established on NIV attending an NIV outpatient clinic completed a self-administered questionnaire on their perceived benefit of NIV use consisting of 7 items (scored 1- never true to 5 – always true) and an item on NIV burden (reverse coded). Results: Final sample consisted of 174 patients (mean age 65±12yrs., 65% male) with daily adherence to NIV 6.6 h (IQR 5.5-7,9); in 74% adherence was good. Underlying disease groups were: COPD (45%), OHS (46%) and kyphoscoliosis (9%). Responses are summarized in Table 1. In multivariate analysis adjusted for sex, persistent hypercapnia and diagnosis, only sum score predicted good adherence (OR 1.09, CI 1.01-1.16). Conclusions: Dyspnea relief was the only perceived benefit that differed across disease groups, with OHS perceiving greatest benefit. Perception of NIV burden was low and did not differ across groups. Sum score of the questionnaire predicted adherence to NIV.