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The relationship between driving simulation performance and obstructive sleep apnoea risk, daytime sleepiness, obesity and road traffic accident history of commercial drivers in Turkey

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Abstract

Background

Driving performance is known to be very sensitive to cognitive-psychomotor impairment. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between obesity, risk of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), daytime sleepiness, history of road traffic accident (RTA) and performance on a driving simulator, among commercial drivers.

Methods

We examined commercial vehicle drivers admitted to Psycho-Technical Assessment System (PTAS), which is a computer-aided system that includes a driving simulator test and tests assessing psychomotor-cognitive skills required for driving. Risk of OSA and daytime sleepiness were assessed by the Berlin Questionnaire and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), respectively.

Results

A total of 282 commercial vehicle drivers were consecutively enrolled. The age range was 29–76 years. Thirty drivers were at high risk of OSA. Median ESS of the group was 2 (0–20). Forty-seven percent of the subjects at high risk of OSA failed in early reaction time test, while 28 % of the drivers with low risk of OSA failed (p = 0.03). The obese drivers failed the peripheral vision test when compared with non-obese drivers (p = 0.02). ESS was higher for drivers with a history of RTA when compared to those without RTA (p = 0.02).

Conclusions

Cognitive-psychomotor functions can be impaired in obese and high risk of OSA patients. In our opinion, requiring obese and/or high risk of OSA drivers to take PTAS tests that assess driving skills and psychomotor-cognitive functions crucial to those skills would significantly improve road traffic safety, which is of considerable importance to public health.

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Conflict of interest

The work has been seen and approved by all co-authors. The authors have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Uludag University Faculty of Medicine, 16059, Bursa, Turkey

    Ezgi Demirdöğen Çetinoğlu, Aslı Görek Dilektaşlı, Nilüfer Aylin Acet, Eda Durmuş, Ahmet Ursavaş, Mehmet Karadağ & Ercüment Ege

  2. Metropolitan Municipality Social Services Branch Manager, Bursa, Turkey

    Nefise Ateş Demir

  3. Department of Biostatistics, University Faculty of Medicine, Bursa, Turkey

    Güven Özkaya

Authors
  1. Ezgi Demirdöğen Çetinoğlu
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  2. Aslı Görek Dilektaşlı
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Correspondence to Ezgi Demirdöğen Çetinoğlu.

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Demirdöğen Çetinoğlu, E., Görek Dilektaşlı, A., Demir, N.A. et al. The relationship between driving simulation performance and obstructive sleep apnoea risk, daytime sleepiness, obesity and road traffic accident history of commercial drivers in Turkey. Sleep Breath 19, 865–872 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-014-1114-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-014-1114-6

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