Abstract
Introduction: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was originally designed to measure the overall level of daytime sleepiness. It has now been suggested as a tool for identifying suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSAS). A score >10 indicates excessive daytime sleepiness. Our main goal has been to evaluate the impact of the nurse's advice on the diagnostic validity of ESS in OSAS.
Methods: We compared the scores of a patient's self-completed ESS (pESS) with another scale completed by the same patient but with the advice of the nurse (nESS), by assessing their degree of agreement. And we evaluated the diagnostic utility of both ESS in the diagnosis of OSAS, defined as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 5.
Results: We evaluated 50 patients, 54% male, mean age 53.7±10.6, mean AHI 25.7±26.1. We observed significant differences (p<0.001) between the pESS score (9.4±5.2) and the nESS score (12.9±5.1).
There is a significant positive relationship between ESS score >10 as the AHI value increases, both in the pEES score (p=0.005) and in the nESS score (p=0.002). This relationship is stronger with the nursing advice. Diagnostic yield of both EES in OSAS is shown in table 1.
Conclusions: Patients tend to underestimate sleepiness. Scores were significantly higher when the scale was completed with the advice of the nurse. We found a clear relationship between ESS>10 and AHI≥5, being stronger in the nEES. We propose to use additional scales to rule out false positives.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2020; 56: Suppl. 64, 579.
This abstract was presented at the 2020 ERS International Congress, in session “Respiratory viruses in the "pre COVID-19" era”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2020
