Psychological and Clinical Predictors of Compliance With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: A Prospective Study

Wild, Matt (2000) Psychological and Clinical Predictors of Compliance With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: A Prospective Study. D Clin Psy thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge and understanding, among healthcare professionals, about the activities of clinical psychologists and to assess perception of need for the clinical psychology service within a general hospital. Differences between high/regular and occasional/non-referring departments were examined in relation to the above objectives with a view towards explaining variations in referral rates to the Department of Clinical Psychology. Design and Subjects: A semi-structured interview, containing items aimed at addressing the above objectives, was administered to fifteen hospital based medical and surgical consultants representing different departments. Setting: A General Hospital in Central Scotland. Results: High/regular referring departments displayed a greater level of knowledge and understanding of clinical psychology practice than occasional/non-referring departments. The occasional/non-referring departments demonstrated more cautious attitudes than high/regular referring departments towards psychological input to the care of patients. Overall, most departments indicated that they would be interested in learning more about the clinical psychology service and what it could offer their departments. Conclusions: The study identified a generally low level of awareness and understanding of psychological issues among the departmental representatives within the general hospital. This highlighted the need for education about the role of clinical psychology in general hospitals and improved communication between the psychology service and other departments in the hospital. The survey identified that these moves would generally be welcomed by departments, suggesting that lower referral rates were more likely to be a result of poor understanding rather than hostility or mistrust towards psychological methods. A larger scale study should be carried out to investigate the generality of these findings.

• Item Type: Thesis (D Clin Psy)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Clinical psychology, Physiological psychology
• Date of Award: 2000
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2000-76232
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 16:15
• Last Modified: 19 Nov 2019 16:15
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/76232