The Value Of Goal Questionnaire In Screening Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS)is a relatively common sleep disorder,and increasingly suspicious patients are referred to sleep clinics.Therefore,a simple but efficient screening tool is urgently needed.GOAL questionnaire is a new and simple questionnaire.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of the GOAL questionnaire in screening of patients with suspected OSAHS,and to compare it with Epworth Sleepiness Scale,STOP-BANG questionnaire,and NOSAS score.Methods:A total of 380 patients suspected OSAHS who were admitted to the Sleep Center of Peking University Shenzhen Hospital from May 2019 to January 2021 were enrolled.Before receiving polysomnography,all participants respectively completed Epworth Sleepiness Scale,STOP-Bang questionnaire.Then GOAL questionnaire,NoSAS score and STOP-Bang questionnaire were improved according to the results of the questionnaires and basic anthropological data.Through comparing the results with the gold standard PSG results,sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the four screening tools were calculated at different AHI cut-offs(≥5 events/h,≥15events/h,≥30 events/h).Results:325 patients suspected OSAHS were enrolled(269 men,56 women),and285 were diagnosed with OSAHS.Using mild moderate-severe(AHI≥5events/ h),moderate-severe(AHI≥15 events/ h)and severe(AHI≥30 events/ h)as cutoffs,sensitivities and specificities of GOAL questionnaire were 82.5% and 72.5%,93.4%and 49.6%,94.7% and 37.1%.At different AHI cutoffs,the area under the curve(AUC)of GOAL questionnaire ranged from 0.696 to 0.796.And the AUC of STOP-Bang questionnaire ranged 0.701 to 0.795.The AUC of the NoSAS score ranged from 0.631 to 0.747.The GOAL questionnaire had the largest AUC(0.79695% CI: 0.715-0.877)of diagnosing OSAHS at AHI cutoff of ≥5 events/h.For discriminating different severity of OSAHS,GOAL questionnaire showed similar discrimination to STOP-Bang questionnaire.Conclusions: The GOAL questionnaire,a simple,efficient,and easy method,had good performance on the discrimination of OSAHS patients in sleep clinics.Moreover,its discrimination was satisfactory and not-inferior to STOP-Bang questionnaire,NoSAS score.