Constance H. Fung

About

Constance H. Fung is a HS Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA. Her research focuses on sleep disorders, particularly nocturia, insomnia, and obstructive sleep apnea in older adults. She has been involved in multiple clinical trials aimed at improving sleep quality and treatment adherence among older populations, including the use of consumer wearable devices to augment sleep therapy and strategies for discontinuing hypnotic medications. Her work also explores behavioral treatments for sleep disturbances, the management of comorbid sleep conditions, and the development of decision aids for veterans with sleep disorders. Dr. Fung's contributions include advancing understanding of sleep-related issues in geriatric populations and developing integrated behavioral interventions to improve health outcomes.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Internal medicine
• Physical therapy
• Family medicine
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Randomized controlled trial of an integrated approach to treating insomnia and improving the use of positive airway pressure therapy in veterans with comorbid insomnia disorder and obstructive sleep apnea

  SLEEP · 2020 · 58 citations

  STUDY OBJECTIVES: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) for comorbid insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has had mixed results. We integrated CBTI with a positive airway pressure (PAP) adherence program and tested effects on sleep and PAP use. METHODS: 125 veterans (mean age 63.2, 96% men, 39% non-Hispanic white, 26% black/African American, 18% Hispanic/Latino) with comorbid insomnia and newly-diagnosed OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15) were randomized to 5-weekly sessions integr…

  DOI

• Change in Dysfunctional Sleep-Related Beliefs is Associated with Changes in Sleep and Other Health Outcomes Among Older Veterans With Insomnia: Findings From a Randomized Controlled Trial

  Annals of Behavioral Medicine · 2021 · 31 citations

  BACKGROUND: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) targets changing dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. The impact of these changes on daytime functioning in older adults is unknown. PURPOSE: We examined whether changes in sleep-related beliefs from pre- to post-CBTI predicted changes in sleep and other outcomes in older adults. METHOD: Data included 144 older veterans with insomnia from a randomized controlled trial testing CBTI. Sleep-related beliefs were assessed with the Dysfuncti…

  DOI

• Efficacy of a patient decision aid for improving person-centered decision-making by older adults with obstructive sleep apnea

  Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine · 2020 · 19 citations

  DOI

• Feasibility of cognitive testing and ecological momentary assessments using smartphones in middle aged and older adults with insomnia

  BMC Digital Health · 2025-06-30 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background: Older adults with insomnia who use benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZAs) may be at increased risk of cognitive impairment. Cognitive testing outside of clinical settings may yield results that are more reflective of individuals' cognition in their natural environment, where they experience fluctuations in mental state (e.g. drowsiness). We assessed the feasibility of self-administered cognitive testing via smartphone apps for collecting in-moment, in-context data about a person's c…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comorbidities that modulate temporal risk for incident hypertension among patients with obstructive sleep apnea

  Clinical Hypertension · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Our study investigates the temporality of factors that modulate the risk for developing hypertension (HTN) among patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) without preexisting HTN at baseline. Methods: Our cohort consisted of OSA cases (based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th/10th Revision) with 20 common comorbidities selected using a previously validated electronic health record (EHR)-based algorithm. We constructed a survival model to estimate time-to-first HTN dia…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Improving Older Adults' Decision Making For Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment

  NIH · $786k · 2013–2019

• A novel mechanism for helping older adults discontinue use of sleeping pills

  NIH · $2.7M · 2018–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Cathy A. Alessi

  VA NY Harbor Healthcare System

  461 shared

• Jennifer L. Martin

  Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center

  438 shared

• Michael N. Mitchell

  Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center

  232 shared

• Yeonsu Song

  Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center

  228 shared

• Karen Josephson

  VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

  218 shared

• Joseph M. Dzierzewski

  National Sleep Foundation

  192 shared

• Stella Jouldjian

  VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

  157 shared

• Michelle Zeidler

  Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center

  125 shared

Education

• M.D.

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1990

• B.S.

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1986

Similar researchers at University of California, Los Angeles

• Sally A. Frautschyh-91
• David B. Reubenh-90
• Gregory Coleh-87