ArticleFrontiers in medicine2025
Improving OSA screening efficiency with subjective questionnaires: integrating STOP-Bang, ESS, and Berlin.
Article in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- From retrospective to prospective design: a short communication on why the methodological paradigm for qualitative research on delayed medical consultation in obstructive sleep apnea may need to be reconstructed.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2026Review
- Screening obstructive sleep apnea using clinical questionnaires and the triglyceride-glucose index: a cardiovascular risk-based approach.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To compare the predictive value of the STOP-Bang questionnaire, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Berlin questionnaire, while evaluating the combined application of these tools in a three-step screening strategy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Methods: From September 1, 2016, to October 31, 2020, at the Sleep Medicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 2,208 suspected OSA patients completed the ESS, STOP-Bang, and Berlin questionnaires and underwent polysomnography (PSG). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated for each questionnaire, and the accuracy and predictive value of combining the STOP-Bang, ESS, and Berlin questionnaires for OSA screening were analyzed. Results: Among the individual scales, the Berlin questionnaire had the highest area under the curve (AUC), demonstrating the best diagnostic performance and the highest PPV. The ESS had the smallest AUC and the highest specificity, but the lowest sensitivity and NPV. The STOP-Bang had the highest sensitivity and NPV but the lowest specificity and PPV. When the scales were combined, the AUCs of all combinations were less than 0.7, indicating that the diagnostic performance of the combined scales slightly decreased compared to the individual scales. However, among the combined scales, the AUC of the three-scale combination was higher than that of the two-scale combinations. After combining the questionnaires, specificity and PPV increased, but sensitivity and NPV decreased. Among the two-questionnaire combinations, the sensitivity and NPV of the ESS and STOP-Bang combination were higher than those of the ESS and Berlin questionnaire combination, while specificity and PPV were lower. The combination of all three questionnaires resulted in the highest specificity and PPV, but the lowest sensitivity and NPV. Conclusion: As the number of scales increases, sensitivity and NPV decrease, while specificity and PPV increase. Therefore, we recommend a three-step strategy, combining a STOP-Bang score of 3, an ESS score of 9, and the Berlin questionnaire to improve the specificity and PPV in screening for OSA.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.