Sleep Health Literacy: The Key to Guiding Members from Diagnosis to Adherence

Just like diet and exercise, getting enough quality sleep is essential for both mental and physical health.¹ Yet for many Americans, struggling to fall asleep, waking frequently during the night, or starting the morning feeling unrested has become an accepted norm. These and other often overlooked signs can indicate underlying sleep disorders² and underscore the importance of sleep health literacy—a foundational first step in improving overall sleep health.

A silent epidemic in the U.S., sleep disorders affect between 50 and 70 million people³ and cost upwards of $94 billion annually⁴, yet they often go undetected by members, their providers, and health plans alike.

Sleep health literacy can play a significant role in a member’s propensity to recognize symptoms, seek care, and adhere to treatment—barriers that can also contribute to health equity challenges. However, these health literacy gaps frequently go unnoticed and unaddressed, and many health plans lack comprehensive sleep programs designed to close those gaps across the entire member journey.

Nearly 9 out of 10 adults in the U.S. struggle with health literacy.⁵

To effectively address these issues, health plans need a solution that guides and engages members from diagnosis through long-term treatment adherence.

The Impact of Low Health Literacy on Sleep Health

Sleep health literacy is defined as an individual’s capacity to comprehend sleep-related information and navigate sleep-related healthcare services.⁶

For more than 83 million adults in the U.S. living with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)⁷, one of the most common sleep disorders, gaps in sleep health literacy can be the difference between receiving timely treatment and developing serious medical and psychiatric comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, hypertension, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, depression, and anxiety.⁸

Approximately 32% of all adults in the U.S. have OSA.⁷

Low health literacy can affect a person’s ability to manage and access healthcare⁹, including undergoing sleep testing, following up with providers to review results, coordinating supplies, and adhering to treatment, which can all contribute to undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders.

Research shows a significant amount of people, regardless of health literacy challenges, are non-adherent to their continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy due to various barriers, including inadequate patient education and suboptimal communication with providers.¹⁰ Additionally, many individuals have a limited understanding of how significantly OSA can affect their overall health and quality of life.

In fact, between 8-15% of patients with OSA refuse CPAP treatment after the first night, and at least 50% discontinue use within a year.¹¹

Those with inadequate health literacy have been shown to be 2.9 times more likely to have non-adherent CPAP therapy usage.¹²These findings suggest that inadequate health literacy is an independent predictor of treatment adherence and may represent a modifiable risk factor of poor treatment outcomes in OSA.¹²

Members who aren’t compliant with sleep disorder treatment have an increased risk for developing long-term comorbidities or seeing an exacerbation of existing conditions.¹³Sleep deprivation can also affect their executive function, memory, and decision making.¹⁴

Lack of sleep health literacy, and the resulting treatment burden, is a perfect storm for poor health outcomes, increased hospital and emergency department (ED) utilization, and high healthcare costs—part of the broader $349 billion annual economic impact of limited health literacy.⁹

Supporting Members with Sleep Health Literacy

Addressing health literacy can improve sleep disorder outcomes and is important for advancing health equity. A 2024 study in the journal Frontiers In Sleep found that patient education and engagement significantly enhanced CPAP adherence.¹⁵

In recent years, the sleep management market has been evolving as a result of the increase in sleep disorder prevalence. However, there are still significant opportunities for health plans to address the gaps leading to unmanaged sleep disorders, high healthcare utilization, and poor outcomes.

CareCentrix’s comprehensive Sleep Management solution addresses the current gaps in the market, ensuring members have timely access to testing and therapy, follow-up with their care coordinators, and adhere to their treatment plans. Our solution addresses four key areas that impact sleep therapy and respiratory management: care setting, member adherence, supply utilization, and network management and oversight.

The solution aims to overcome sleep health literacy gaps through:

Care coordination every step of the way.
From sleep testing and coordinating therapy, to education, training, and adherence, we manage care coordination across the entire care continuum, which can improve test completion rates, turnaround times, and care delivery.
Timely access to sleep testing, supplies, and therapy.
We conduct medical necessity reviews and optimize the site of sleep diagnostic testing, when appropriate, offering convenient, more affordable, in-home testing within 30 days to prevent members from failing to follow up. Through our contracted network of quality home sleep test providers and sleep durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, members receive their sleep supplies and positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy within 14 days, on average.¹⁶
iComply Therapy Adherence Program
Our iComply program provides members with education, training, and personalized support to ensure their devices are set up correctly and they know how to properly use them. We also help members understand the importance of therapy adherence and troubleshoot any challenges along the way. The PAP devices transmit data directly to our iComply team so we can monitor member usage and efficacy data to ensure adherence and reach out to the PAP supplier and primary care provider, if necessary. Research shows that early acceptance of CPAP therapy has a positive impact on long-term adherence¹⁷, which is why our team provides support within the first 90 to 120 days.

By proactively educating, engaging, and supporting members, our health plan partners achieve an 80% adherence rate¹⁶—approximately 30% higher than the national average.¹⁸ Plus, moving members to the most cost-effective site of care yields up to 20% in total cost-of-care reduction.¹⁶

Explore how our comprehensive, integrated Sleep Management solution can help your organization better support members with sleep disorders for improved outcomes and reduced costs. To learn more, contact us today.

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