The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 340:847-851 March 18, 1999 Number 11
NextNext

The Association between Sleep Apnea and the Risk of Traffic Accidents
J. Terán-Santos, M.D., A. Jimenez-Gomez, M.D., J. Cordero-Guevara, M.D., for The Cooperative Group Burgos–Santander

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF

Commentary
-Editorial
 by Suratt, P. M.

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background and Methods Drowsiness and lack of concentration may contribute to traffic accidents. We conducted a case–control study of the relation between sleep apnea and the risk of traffic accidents. The case patients were 102 drivers who received emergency treatment at hospitals in Burgos or Santander, Spain, after highway traffic accidents between April and December 1995. The controls were 152 patients randomly selected from primary care centers in the same cities and matched with the case patients for age and sex. Respiratory polygraphy was used to screen the patients for sleep apnea at home, and conventional polysomnography was used to confirm the diagnosis. The apnea–hypopnea index (the total number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea divided by the number of hours of sleep) was calculated for each participant.

Results The mean age of the participants was 44 years; 77 percent were men. As compared with those without sleep apnea, patients with an apnea–hypopnea index of 10 or higher had an odds ratio of 6.3 (95 percent confidence interval, 2.4 to 16.2) for having a traffic accident. This relation remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders, such as alcohol consumption, visual-refraction disorders, body-mass index, years of driving, age, history with respect to traffic accidents, use of medications causing drowsiness, and sleep schedule. Among subjects with an apnea–hypopnea index of 10 or more, the risk of an accident was higher among those who had consumed alcohol on the day of the accident than among those who had not.

Conclusions There is a strong association between sleep apnea, as measured by the apnea–hypopnea index, and the risk of traffic accidents.


Source Information

From the General Yagüe Hospital, Burgos (J.T.-S., J.C.-G.); and the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, Santander (A.J.-G.) — both in Spain.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Jiménez at H.U.M. de Valdecilla, Servicio de Respiratorio, Avda. de Valdecilla s/n, 3900 Santander, Spain, or at nmljga{at}humv.es.

Full Text of this Article


This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.