title: [Relationship between symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and traffic accidents in the city drivers].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a high tendency for traffic accidents in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Thus it's recommended to investigate OSAS symptoms before certification of professional drivers. However, to what degree OSAS symptoms predict traffic accidents is not clear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between OSAS symptoms and traffic accidents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred twenty bus drivers working at Istanbul Electricity, Tramway and Tunnel (IETT) general management were randomly selected. Berlin questionnaire was applied which included demographic data, accident ratios, total duration in profession, duration of working in a day and OSAS symptoms. Epworth sleepiness score (ESS) test was applied to assess day time slepiness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All drivers were male. Snoring were present in 324 (65.7%) of participants. Traffic accident history were present in 259 (49.7%) of drivers. Significant relationship was present between traffic accident and only daytime sleepiness among the OSAS symptoms. The mean of accident/year ratio of all participants were 0.092. Mean of ESS was 7.3 ± 3.2 for all participants. There is a positive correlation between ESS and accident/year ratio (r= 0.57, p= 0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only daytime sleepiness among OSAS symptoms is related with traffic accident. The questioning of OSAS symptoms alone is inadequate to estimate traffic accident risk. Thus further consideration more than symptom questioning is needed at phase of authorization of professional drivers to detect OSAS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Bezmialem Vakif University, Istanbul, Turkey. eminakkoyunlu@gmail.com
authors.forename: Muhammed Emin
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Akkoyunlu
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kart
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uludağ
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bayram
authors.forename: Gersi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alisha
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Özçelik
authors.forename: Fatmanur
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Karaköse
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sezer
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000150:complications*; D012894:Sleep Stages; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014186:Transportation