Citation

Touliou A, Portouli E, Margaritis D, Bekiaris E. Proc. Road Saf. Four Continents Conf. 2010; 15: 382-393.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Conference Sponsor)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Research to-date identifies the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) as a significant risk factor to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and supports that treatment of OSAS using continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) can reduce this risk. As yet, however, there are no generally accepted regulations within the Europe Union concerning driving licensing and OSAS. Thus, it seems pertinent that these regulations are established both for the benefit of the OSAS patients and the safety of all drivers. In the present study, the main objective was the investigation of the effect of OSAS and alcohol consumption in driving performance, while controlling for limitations of previous research. The performance levels of OSAS patients (N=18) in two conditions, CPAP- treated and untreated, with the performance levels of healthy control participants (N=18) in two conditions, BAC=0% and BAC = 0.5%, has been studied in a series of simulated driving and cognitive functioning tasks. The results were in agreement with the results of previous research, untreated OSAS patients with an apnea-hypopnea index >10 showed a worse driving and laboratory test performance than when treated with CPAP. In most of the indicators studied, the deterioration of performance was less severe than the deterioration of performance of healthy control participants in the BAC=0.5% condition. However, the increase in reaction time in case of sudden braking of lead vehicle and the increase in the number of involuntary lane exceedances is higher than the one caused in the healthy control participants by the BAC=0.5% condition. In conclusion, besides alcohol consumption (0.5%) obstructive sleep apnea impairs some key parameters in driving performance. The results of the study indicated that OSAS may be a contributing factor to MVAs. Furthermore, CPAP treatment should be considered for OSAS patients. It remains to be investigated if CPAP is the most effective OSAS treatment.