title: Motor vehicle accidents and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: A methodology to calculate the related burden of injuries.
abstract: The association between motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has always been quantified as risk of MVAs for individual drivers with OSAS. We evaluated the expected injured patients per year attributable to OSAS-dependent MVAs in a general population. By combining OSAS prevalence and OSAS-dependent MVAs odds ratio, we assessed the population attributable fraction (PAF), an epidemiological tool that can be used to quantify the proportion of road traffic injuries (RTIs) attributable to OSAS. For an apnea hypopnea index >5, the weighed median and combined average of OSAS prevalence were 4.4 (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.7-7.5) and 4.7 (95% CI: 4.2-5.2), respectively; values of risk of OSAS-dependent MVAs were 2.83 (95% CI: 2.72-3.08) and 2.52 (95% CI: 2.07-3.08), respectively. The PAF showed weighed median and combined average values of 6.6 (95% CI: 4.3-9.8) and 7.3% (95% CI: 6.0-13.5), respectively. Our results show that about 7% of RTIs for a population of male drivers involved in MVAs are attributable to OSAS. This value can be used to assess the potential impact, on the reduction of incidence of the motor vehicle injuries, of prevention programs aimed at reducing the number of subjects with an undiagnosed and/or untreated OSAS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Genetics, Sleep Medicine Center, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy State Police Health Service Department, Ministry of the Interior, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garbarino
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Environment and Trauma Unit, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pitidis
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Environment and Trauma Unit, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giustini
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Environment and Trauma Unit, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Taggi
authors.affiliation: Pneumology Unit, Azienda USL 3 Pistoia - Pneumology Unit, San Jacopo Hospital, Pistoia, Italy antonio.cagliari@live.it.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanna
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015984:Causality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*
keywords: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome; motor vehicle accidents; population attributable fraction; public health; road traffic injuries