pSSAS

pictorial Sleepiness and Sleep Apnoea Scale

Purpose : Evaluation of EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness) and evaluation of the risk factors and adverse outcomes of OSAS (obstructive sleep apnea syndrome)

Admin time :  5-10 min.

User Friendly :  High

Administered by : self or GP

Content : Contains eight items.

Items 1–4 are used to evaluate EDS and are taken from the pESS.The pictograms show a person in various situations, in particular sitting and reading, watching TV or listening to the radio, sitting quietly after a meal or as a passenger in a car or bus. For each situation, the patient can choose five different integers.

Items 5–8 are used to evaluate the risk factors and adverse outcomes of OSAS such as body size, neck size, blood pressure and witnessed pauses while breathing when asleep.

Author :  Edelmann C, 2017 access

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Copyright : © 2011, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. & British Thoracic Society

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License whereby the material if free to share adapt and use for non-commercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is included.

pictorial Sleepiness and Sleep Apnoea Scale

Advantages:

• Its simple structure, scoring rules and the use of pictograms make it an alternative to more complex and long questionnaires in clinical practice and in patients with impaired literacy.

• The pSSAS sleepiness component correlated strongly with the ESS and pESS

• The pSSAS OSAS component has good internal consistency, repeatability and construct validity when compared with established tools for the diagnosis of EDS and OSAS.

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Limitations: 

• further research is needed to evaluate its responsiveness to therapy and its use in other settings such as population screening or self-administration without supervision

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Accuracy : 

Sensitivity almost 70% and specificity >80% with a cut-off score of14. (Edelmann C, 2017)