Sleep apnea is a condition in which a narrowing or closure of the upper airway during sleep causes repeated sleep disturbances, and possible complete awakenings, leading to poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness. The primary objectives of this study were to (1) obtain additional and more meaningful crash data by linking the UPenn sleep apnea database to the FMCSA's Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) crash database; (2) understand the impact of sleep apnea and driver impairment on crash involvement, the number of crashes, and the severity of crashes; and (3) gain insight into how crash rates are impacted before and after drivers are diagnosed with sleep apnea. The overall goal of the analysis is to determine the crash risks for CMV drivers with sleep apnea compared to drivers who do not have sleep apnea. The results of this study contradict those found in several previous studies, in that other studies found a strong positive relationship between sleep apnea and motor vehicle crashes. A possible reason for this contradiction could be attributed to limitations of the data used in this study, and these are discussed in detail in this report. This study, using an analysis using logistic regression, found no association between sleep apnea, as measured by the apnea/hypopnea index, and commercial motor vehicle crashes. Patients with sleep apnea had no greater probability of having a crash than patients without sleep apnea, either before or after their diagnosis. Drivers with sleep apnea were also not found to be at an increased risk for multiple crashes, nor were crash rates impacted by the prevalence of apnea. No link between the severity of sleep apnea and traffic crashes was established in these analyses.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Sleep Apnea Crash Risk Study


    Contributors:
    L. C. Barr (author) / L. Boyle (author) / G. Maislin (author)

    Publication date :

    2004


    Size :

    98 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Obstructive sleep apnea

    Joseph Arnold / M Sunilkumar / V Krishna et al. | DOAJ | 2017

    Free access

    Diabetes and sleep apnea

    Tahrani, Abd A. | Wiley | 2015


    Risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea among train drivers

    Saraei, Maryam / Najafi, Arezu / Heidarbagi, Ehsan | IOS Press | 2019


    Pathogenesis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

    Chediak, A. D. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998


    Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: An Emerging Risk Factor for Dementia

    Buratti, Laura / Luzzi, Simona / Petrelli, Cristina et al. | Bentham Science Publishers | 2016