It is still unclear how patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) should be assessed to determine if they are safe to drive, a European Respiratory Society task force has concluded.
Despite EU legislation setting OSA benchmarks for safe driving, a review of the evidence found that much more research is needed on how to measure vigilance and sleepiness and how that correlates with fitness to drive.
The ERS Statement in the European Respiratory Journal said a standardised model for screening for OSA and identifying those patients at high risk of accidents while driving is needed.
In 2014, the EU introduced a directive requiring that patients with an apnoea or hypopnoea frequency per hour (AHI) of at least 15 AHI >15 and associated sleepiness should not drive until effectively treated and a doctor confirms they are able to continue driving.
Speaking with the limbic, task force member Dr Mark Elliott, said the goal of the ERS taskforce was to look at the evidence on how best to assess a patient’s risk.
“The problem is the ERS Statement raises more questions than answers because of the poor quality or lack of evidence,” he said.
The Task Force found that OSA is a recognised risk factor for driving accidents, but identifying those who are at risk is problematic because there are so many factors to take into account, including whether the patient is taking extra precautions to mitigate their risk.
“Despite the large number of studies, we still lack simple instruments applicable on a large scale that could reliably indicate that a subject with OSA is fit to drive.