The aim of this study was to develop a simplified screening questionnaire to detect the existence of severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients to reduce mortality and hospitalization rates. Seventy-seven stable Asian COPD patients aged 69.2 ± 11.5 years were retrospectively analyzed into the development group. The simplified screening questionnaire was developed from factors identified from sleep surveys and demographic data to predict severe OSA. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to validate the simplified screening questionnaire. Data from another 78 stable COPD patients were used for validation. The apnea-hypopnea index was similar between the development and validation groups (26.3 ± 21.9 and 27.6 ± 21.1, respectively). After logistic regression analysis in the development group, snoring, body mass index ≥27.5 kg/m2, witnessed apnea and coronary artery disease were incorporated into the screening questionnaire to predict OSA. When this questionnaire was applied to the validation group, the results were similar. The simplified screening questionnaire developed is useful in identifying severe OSA in COPD patients.
Keywords: Obstructive sleep apnea; chronic obstructive airway obstruction; sleep questionnaire.