Establishment and Application Evaluation of an Improved Obstructive Sleep Apnea Screening Questionnaire for Chinese Community: The CNCQ-OSA

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep-disordered breathing disease. We aimed to establish an improved screening questionnaire without physical examinations for OSA named the CNCQ-OSA (Chinese community questionnaire for OSA).

Methods: A total of 2585 participants who visited sleep medicine center and underwent overnight polysomnography were grouped into two independent cohorts: derivation (n = 2180) and validation (n = 405). The CNCQ-OSA was designed according to the baseline of patients in derivation cohort. We comprehensively analyzed the data to evaluate the predictive value of the CNCQ-OSA, compared to the GOAL questionnaire, STOP-Bang questionnaire (SBQ) and NoSAS questionnaire.

Results: The CNCQ-OSA included seven variables: loud snoring, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m², male gender, apnea, sleepiness, hypertension and age ≥30, with a total score ranging from 7 to 16.7 points (≥13.5 points indicating high risk of OSA, ≥14.5 points indicating extremely high risk). In the derivation and validation cohorts, the areas under the curve of the CNCQ-OSA were 0.761 and 0.767, respectively. In the validation cohort, the sensitivity and specificity of a CNCQ-OSA score ≥13.5 points for the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥5/h were 0.821 and 0.559, respectively (Youden index, 0.380), and the score ≥14.5 points were 0.494 and 0.887, respectively (Youden index, 0.375). The CNCQ-OSA had a better predictive value for AHI ≥ 5/h, AHI > 15/h and AHI > 30/h, with the highest Youden index, compared to the other questionnaires.

Conclusion: The CNCQ-OSA can effectively identify the risk of OSA, which is appropriate for self-screening at home without physical examinations.