title: [The evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness in taxi drivers].
abstract: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a common but underrecognized and preventable cause of traffic accidents. It creates a problem of particular importance for professional drivers. We performed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and questionnaire related to their history of traffic accidents to 118 professional taxi drivers to determine the EDS and its effects on driving performance in taxi drivers. There were 58 (49.2%) subjects with loud snoring, 8 (5.9%) subjects with cardinal symptoms due to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and 28 (23.7%) subjects with ESS > or =10 in the group of taxi drivers. Eighty (67.8%) drivers had been involved in a traffic accident. We found a significant relation between the number of traffic accident and EDS, witnessed apnea, cardinal symptom related to OSAS but not with snoring. The present data that sleepiness is a common symptom in taxi drivers and may be related to traffic accident.
authors.affiliation: Pulmonary Diseases, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, 06100 Cebeci, Ankara, Turkey. gulbay@dialup.ankara.edu.tr
authors.forename: Banu Eriş
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Gülbay
authors.forename: Turan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Acican
authors.forename: Ruşina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Doğan
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baççioğlu
authors.forename: Emine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Güllü
authors.forename: Gülseren
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karadağ
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001334:Automobile Driving; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology