Department of Neuroscience, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia.
Sleep Breath. 2012 Sep;16(3):793-802. doi: 10.1007/s11325-011-0578-x. Epub 2011 Aug 27.
Growing awareness of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has increased the need for concise and reliable screening tools. The Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) has been validated in numerous languages and ethnic groups, since it was originally designed for the English-speaking population. The STOP questionnaire was developed as a novel OSAS screening tool in surgical patients, but has not been validated in the general population. The present study was undertaken to provide reliable and validated ESS in the Croatian language and to evaluate the ESS and STOP as screening instruments for OSAS.
The Croatian version of ESS and STOP questionnaire was administered to 217 patients referred to the Split Sleep Medicine Center and 208 healthy control subjects. Test-retest reliability was investigated in 20 healthy subjects.
The ESS score was significantly higher for the patients referred to the Split Sleep Medicine Center compared to the control group (8.2 ± 5.0 vs. 5.9 ± 3.8, p < 0.001). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the ESS Croatian version was 0.84 indicating an excellent internal consistency. Reproducibility revealed no significant difference in each item or in the total ESS scores. Receiver operating curve of the ESS for identification of cases with AHI >5/h was 0.64, and for the STOP questionnaire, it was 0.84.
Both ESS and STOP questionnaires successfully distinguished healthy subjects from subjects with OSAS. The STOP questionnaire had better probability to correctly predict high-risk patients for OSAS compared to ESS. We propose that the STOP questionnaire could be used as an easy-to-use and accurate screening tool in identification of patients with risk for OSAS in the general population, but it has not been tested in the Croatian population yet.
阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停综合征（OSAS）的认识不断提高，这增加了对简洁可靠的筛查工具的需求。Epworth 嗜睡量表（ESS）已在多种语言和种族中得到验证，因为它最初是为英语人群设计的。STOP 问卷是作为一种新的手术患者 OSAS 筛查工具开发的，但尚未在普通人群中得到验证。本研究旨在提供可靠和经过验证的克罗地亚语 ESS，并评估 ESS 和 STOP 作为 OSAS 的筛查工具。
向 217 名被转诊到斯普利特睡眠医学中心的患者和 208 名健康对照者发放了 ESS 和 STOP 问卷的克罗地亚语版本。在 20 名健康受试者中进行了测试-再测试可靠性研究。
与对照组相比，被转诊到斯普利特睡眠医学中心的患者的 ESS 评分明显更高（8.2±5.0 与 5.9±3.8，p<0.001）。ESS 克罗地亚语版本的克朗巴赫α系数为 0.84，表明内部一致性极好。重复性研究显示，各项目或 ESS 总分均无显著差异。ESS 用于识别 AHI>5/h 的病例的接收者操作特征曲线为 0.64，而 STOP 问卷的曲线为 0.84。
ESS 和 STOP 问卷都成功地区分了健康受试者和 OSAS 患者。与 ESS 相比，STOP 问卷更有可能正确预测 OSAS 的高危患者。我们建议 STOP 问卷可作为一种简单易用且准确的筛查工具，用于识别普通人群中 OSAS 风险患者，但尚未在克罗地亚人群中进行测试。
