Are you silently suffocating at night?
Over one billion adults worldwide have undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (Benjafield AV, et al. Lancet Respir Med. 2019). Two validated screens — STOP-BANG + Epworth — used in pre-op and primary-care assessment.
Why this matters
Obstructive sleep apnea silently interrupts breathing dozens or hundreds of times per night. Untreated it raises risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, dementia, and car accidents by 2-4×. 80% of sufferers do not know they have it. This screen takes 2 minutes and is the same one used in pre-surgical clinics.
01
STOP-BANG (8 yes/no)
Chung 2008. Validated against the polysomnography gold-standard sleep study.
02
Epworth (8 scenarios)
Johns 1991. Quantifies daytime sleepiness — the second half of the OSA picture.
Scales: STOP-BANG (Chung F et al. Anesthesiology. 2008;108:812-821) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (Johns MW. Sleep. 1991;14:540-545). Screening tools, not diagnostic. Definitive diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea requires a polysomnography or home sleep test ordered by a clinician.