Screening questionnaires for obstructive sleep apnea: an updated systematic review

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common sleep-related breathing disorder which is associated with significant morbidity. The aim of the current study was to do an updated systematic review of literature on studies assessed the accuracy of screening questionnaires for OSA against polysomnography (PSG) as the reference test.

Methods: An English literature search was performed using Medline, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Scopus between January 2010 till April 2017. The reference list of included studies were also manually searched for finding additional studies.

Results: Thirty-nine studies comprising 18068 subjects included in the systematic review. The sensitivity of STOP-Bang questionnaire (SBQ) in detecting mild (AHI≥5 events/h) and severe (AHI≥30 events/h) OSA was higher in comparison to other screening questionnaires (ranged from 81.08% to 97.55% and 69.2% to 98.7% respectively). However, STOP questionnaire (SQ) had the highest sensitivity in prediction of moderate OSA (AHI≥15 events/h) (ranged from 41.3% to 100%).

Conclusion: The results of the present systematic review suggested SQ and SBQ for screening of OSA among sleep clinic patients. Although further validation studies of screening questionnaires on general populations are required.

Author(s): Behzad Rahmati                                                                                                                                                     

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