YouTube Shorts video spotlights peer support for sleep apnea therapy using CPAP devices

A recent YouTube Shorts video with nearly 600 views in a day spotlights Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, in a clip from a longer University of Arizona Health Sciences video posted to its YouTube channel called, “Expert Insights – Sleep apnea: Peer support for CPAP use,” regarding use of a continuous positive airway pressure device as therapy to improve sleep health.

YouTube Shorts are short-form videos that are 60 seconds or less in length, similar to Instagram Reels.

Dr. Parthasarathy, a professor of medicine, is also chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine as well as director of the Center for Sleep, Circadian & Neuroscience Research at the U of A Health Sciences and the Center for Sleep Disorders at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson.

In the short video posted Feb. 17, Dr. Parthasarathy explains how improving health literacy and patient-driven solutions can help people embrace CPAP for better sleep and better health.

“The most surprising thing about CPAP therapy is that people don’t realize how adaptable their body is. This is like buying those new pair of tight shoes that you thought you’d never be able to wear, but now you’re able to. So, the body is very adapting. It may be intimidating at first, but they can get there,” he says.

The original longer U of A Health Sciences video posted to YouTube on Jan. 9, 2025, is 3:07 minutes long. It’s noted in the video that, while CPAP devices are highly effective, only 43% of patients adhere to treatment regimens. Dr. Parthsarathy hopes to improve that by focusing on peer support to help patients connect the dots between treatment and better health outcomes.

The Expert Insights video is a follow-up to a story on the Health Sciences website posted in December (and reposted as a Featured Spotlight on the DOM News webpage) on how “Peer support could help millions with sleep apnea slumber easier.” It’s based on an American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine study accepted for publication in October that appears in print in the February issue.

In the article, Dr. Parthasarathy is first author with co-authors, Christopher Wendel, Michael A. Grandner, PhD, Patricia L. Haynes, PhD, Stefano Guerra, MD, PhD, MPH, Daniel Combs, MD, and Stuart F. Quan, MD – all members of the Center for Sleep, Circadian & Neuroscience Research. All but Drs. Grandner and Haynes are in the PACCS Division. They’re in the college’s Department of Psychiatry.

In the end, they found that patient satisfaction with care delivery, CPAP adherence, and care coordination were improved by peer-driven intervention and that new payor policies compensating peer support may enable further implementation of this approach.

ALSO SEE:
“Peer support could help millions with sleep apnea slumber easier, study says” | Posted Dec. 3, 2024