RELIABILITY OF THE EPWORTH SLEEPINESS SCALE ON SNORING AND SLEEP APNEA PATIENTS

Patients and Methods: Consecutive 264 patients with snoring complaint, who applied to our ENT Clinics, were included to the study. We used ESS to evaluate the daytime sleepiness of the patients. Then all of the patients underwent polisomnographic evaluation in GATA Psychiatry Clinics Sleep Laboratory. The patients were divided in to four groups according to their AHİ.

Results: When the daytime sleepiness is evaluated with ESS, the mean scores were 7,7±4,8 in simple snorers, 9,2±5,1 in mild OSA patients, 11,3±5,7 in moderate OSA patients and 10,8±5,9 in severe OSA patients. According to ESS scores there was a statistically meaningful difference between simple snorers and both moderate and severe OSA patients. (Respectively p<0.001, p=0.011). There was no significant difference between the other groups. A positive correlation was found between ESS and AHI (r=0,252;p<0.001). When ROC analysis was made for AHI scores of 5 and more; sensitivity was 0.41and specificity was 0.71 for men at ESS score level 8.5, sensitivity was 0.75, specificity was 0.85 for the best cutting point 10.5 for women.

Conclusion: Although, ESS scores in simple snorers is similar to the other researches, mean scores in OSA patients are lower than the other researches results. This shows us that ESS can be used in our country with our own mean scores. According to this study, it seems that ESS is a test having lower predictive value for men while a better predictive value is obtained for women Keywords : Sleep apnea, snoring, Epworth Sleepiness Scale