Truck drivers who do not treat sleep apnea regularly have 5 times higher crash rate

Truck drivers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who were not adequately treated for the condition were five times more likely to be involved in preventable crashes than drivers without the sleep disorder, according to a new study co-authored by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute researchers.

They also discoverd that drivers with OSA who were fully compliant with the company-mandated treatment had a crash rate no different than that of the control group.

The study was published in the March 21, 2016 online edition of the journal Sleep. .

Around 25 million American adults suffer from bstructive sleep apnea.

The research contained more than 1,600 U.S. truck drivers with obstructive sleep apnea and a control group with an same number of drivers without the condition. Those with sleep apnea were prescribed CPAP, a treatment that keeps the airways open during their sleep.

"The most surprising result of our study is the strength and robustness of the increase in the crash risk for drivers with sleep apnea who fail to adhere to mandated treatment with positive airway pressure therapy [CPAP]," said the lead author of the research article and professor of economics and management at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

"What we found is that, if we look at 1,000 truck drivers each working for a year, the drivers with obstructive sleep apnea who refuse treatment would have 70 preventable serious truck crashes, compared to 14 crashes experienced by both a control group and by drivers with sleep apnea who adhered to treatment," added Stephen Burks.

"Given that the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia and premature death are similarly increased in people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea, regulatory agencies worldwide owe it to truck drivers and to the motorists who share the road with them to require objective screening, diagnostic testing, and treatmentadherence monitoring for all commercial drivers," said co-author Charles A. Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"This study emphasizes that untreated obstructive sleep apnea is a pervasive threat to transportation safety," American Academy of Sleep Medicine President Dr. Nathaniel Watson said in a journal news release.

"It is critical for transportation companies to implement comprehensive sleep apnea screening and treatment programs to ensure that truck drivers stay awake at the wheel," he added.