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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2022; 15(02): 136-142
DOI: 10.5935/1984-0063.20220033
ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Screening for obstructive sleep apnea in elderly: performance of the Berlin and STOP-Bang questionnaires and the Epworth sleepiness scale using polysomnography as gold standard

Paulo Henrique Godoy 
1   Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Sleep Laboratory of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - LABSONO UNIRIO - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
,
Ana Paula Cassetta dos Santos Nucera
1   Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Sleep Laboratory of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - LABSONO UNIRIO - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
,
Andressa de Paiva Colcher
1   Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Sleep Laboratory of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - LABSONO UNIRIO - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
,
Jéssica Escorcio de Andrade
1   Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Sleep Laboratory of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - LABSONO UNIRIO - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
,
Davi da Silveira Barroso Alves
2   Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Department of Quantitative Methods of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
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Objectives Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects approximately one third of the population and can reach 90% prevalence in the elderly. There are screening tools to track the disease, however, their performance may differ according to population characteristics. This study aims to determine sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, likelihood ratio, and accuracy of the Berlin (BQ) and STOP-Bang (S-Bang) questionnaires and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), comparing their performances, using polysomnography (PSG) as a gold standard, in a sample of elderly.

Material and Methods The study was cross-sectional, retrospective, included patients aged 60 or older who underwent PSG type 1, regardless of the BQ, S-Bang and ESS results, during the period of June 1, 2017 to April 30, 2019. OSA diagnosis was by PSG in which the hypopnea apnea index was greater than or equal to 5.

Results Sixty-two patients were evaluated; the prevalence of OSA was 72.58%. The mean age in the sample with OSA was 73.0±8.4 years and without it was 74.7±8.1 years. The sample was predominantly female, 58.1% with OSA. The BQ showed the best results for specificity, predictive value, likelihood ratio and accuracy. S-Bang had the best result for sensitivity and ESS showed the worst results. The BQ odds ratio showed that an individual with a positive BQ has 335% more chance of developing OSA.

Conclusion The QB showed the best performance in the measures for identifying OSA, for a sample of elderly individuals, with a predominance of females and a high prevalence of the disease.

Sleep Apnea - Obstructive - Mass Screening - Surveys and Questionnaires - Aged


Publication History

Received: 05 July 2021

Accepted: 05 October 2021

Article published online:
01 December 2023

© 2023. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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