TY - JOUR T1 - "Wake Up Bus" study - Romanian results: Why we needed an European study concerning sleepiness at the wheel and road traffic accidents JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P2244 AU - Oana Claudia Deleanu AU - Stefan Mihaicuta AU - Florin Dumitru Mihaltan AU - Phillipe Peigneaux AU - Roberto Amici AU - Ludger Grotte AU - Marta Goncalves Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2244.abstract N2 - Introduction: Sleeping at the wheel might be a serious social problem and could have many causes, from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)-which increases the risk of road traffic accidents (RTA) up to 7 fold-to sleep deprivation.Aims: To assess excessive day sleepiness (EDS) and correlate it with the risk of OSA, RTA, their circumstances and risk groups.Method: An online European questionnaire of 16-33 questions addressed to drivers.Results: From Romania, 675 persons answered, mean age 31-50 years, 50.4% women. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was high (>10) in 33.2% of the responders, which correlated with other risk factors evaluated 26.1% of the males to have increased OSA risk. 17.2% of the responders experienced ever falling asleep at the wheel (more of them with high ESS, p<0.001), 1.3% (9/675) were involved in a RTA (no difference according to ESS). Most of the accidents (6/9) happened from 2 to 7 PM (which is unusual), on principal roads (6/9); 5/9 of the drivers involved in RTA were during the working hours; 8/9 where feeling at least somehow sleepy. The causes for EDS identified by the drivers varied, most of them recognized bad sleeping night prior the accident (indicating also risk for OSA). Age of the driver was not in correlate with the risk of falling asleep/having RTA; men and those with higher numbers of kilometers driven per year have higher risk to fall asleep (p≤0.001), placing professional drivers at higher risk.Conclusions: Sleep deprivation, including due to unrecognized OSAS it is an important risk factor for RTA. Development of system for detection of somnolence and screening for OSA in drivers will lead to the reduction of RTA. ER -