Validation of the Danish STOP-Bang obstructive sleep apnoea questionnaire in a public sleep clinic

Obstructive sleep apnoea is common; a prevalence of 1-5% was previously reported. However, only few cases are diagnosed and receive treatment. The aim of this study was to validate the Danish translated version of the STOP-Bang screening tool for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in a public sleep clinic.
METHODS: A study population of 208 patients who were referred to a public sleep clinic on suspicion of OSA were assessed with the STOP-Bang questionnaire and at-home cardiorespiratory monitoring in order to assess the quality of the questionnaire as an OSA screening tool.
RESULTS: In the study population, 73% were males, and 51% of the population had an Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI) ≥ 15. The STOP-Bang screening tool had a sensitivity of 0.98 for detection of OSA with AHI ≥ 15 and a corresponding specificity of 0.09. Hence, the questionnaire is able to detect almost all patients suffering from OSA. However, using the tool will cause many healthy subjects to be falsely classified as having OSA.
CONCLUSIONS: The Danish version of the STOP-Bang screening tool does not seem useful for OSA screening of patients in a sleep clinic setup, but it may be useful in primary care.