Introduction Current guidelines emphasize assessing ‘excessive sleepiness’ and severity of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) when advising patients with OSA about driving. However, accidents can occur due to lack of concentration and poor reactions. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) measures self-reported cognitive deficits in the completion of simple everyday tasks. We investigated the relationship between drivers’ cognitive capability and the severity of SDB, sleepiness and self-reported driving incidents. Methods 348 patients (n=150, exploratory; n= 198, validation) considered for a trial of CPAP and 173 controls (n=105, exploratory; n=68, validation) matched for age and driving experience completed questionnaires that included the CFQ and a driving questionnaire. Results Compared to controls, patients had a higher total CFQ score (37 +/- 18 v/s 28 +/- 12, p= 10; 40% v/s ESS <10 20%, OR=2.6; 95% CI=1.5 to 4.5; p= 0.0005). CFQ score was also a predictor of driving incidents. Conclusions Sleepiness and cognitive dysfunction, rather than severity of SDB predicts driving incident risk. The CFQ may identify a different aspect of accident risk and therefore may be useful in assessing fitness to drive in patients with OSAS.
Dwarakanath et al. (Fri,) studied this question.