Evaluation of Traffic Accident Risk in In-City Bus Drivers: The Use of Berlin Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVES: Traffic accidents associated with high mortality rate may produce serious problems especially in highways. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been associated with a high risk for traffic accidents due to excessive daytime sleepiness even in in-city drivers. In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate the rate of OSA symptoms and to identify risk factors associated with traffic accidents in in-city bus drivers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire including demographic and anthropometric features, sleep and work schedules, Berlin questionnaire, Epworth sleepiness score (ESS), and history of traffic accidents was used.

RESULTS: The questionnaire was conducted for 1400 male bus drivers (mean age, 38.0±6.4 y, body mass index, 27.8±3.9 kg/m2 ). A total of 1058 (75.6%) drivers had one or more accidents while driving bus. According to the Berlin questionnaire, 176 (12.6%) drivers were found to have high OSA risk and the accident rate was 83.0% in high-risk group, whereas 74.5% of low-risk drivers had accidents (p=0.043). The drivers with a history of traffic accident were older (p=0.030), had higher ESS (p=0.019), and were more in the high-risk OSA group according to the Berlin questionnaire (p=0.015). In multivariate linear regression analysis, traffic accident was associated with only Berlin questionnaire (p=0.015).

CONCLUSION: The present results support that city bus drivers with high OSA risk according to Berlin questionnaire have increased accident rates. Therefore, we suggest using Berlin questionnaire for screening sleep apnea not only in highway drivers but also in in-city bus drivers.