Development of a Disease-specific Health-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Sleep Apnea

Abstract

The Calgary Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (SAQLI) was developed to record key elements of the disease that are important to patients. All items felt to influence the quality of life of these patients were identified. Final questionnaire items were selected by interviewing 113 patients with sleep apnea and 50 snorers who rated each item on whether it was a problem and the importance of it to their overall quality of life. Items for the final questionnaire were selected based on the rank order of the frequency ximportance product. The rank ordering was similar across strata of disease severity and between sexes. The Calgary SAQLI has 35 questions organized into four domains: daily functioning, social interactions, emotional functioning, and symptoms. A fifth domain, treatment-related symptoms, can be added for clinical intervention trials to record the possible negative impacts of treatment. The SAQLI has a high degree of internal consistency, face validity as judged by content experts and patients, and construct validity as shown by its positive correlations with the SF-36 and the improvement in scores in patients successfully completing a 4-wk trial of continuous positive airway pressure. It includes items shown to be important to patients with sleep apnea and is designed as a measure of outcome in clinical trials in sleep apnea. Flemons WW, Reimer MA. Development of a disease-specific health-related quality of life questionnaire for sleep apnea.

Long-Term Effectiveness and Safety of Maxillomandibular Advancement for Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

“…Secondary outcome measures included changes in office BP, subjective sleepiness as measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), 33,34 %REM sleep, and sleep-specific quality of life as measured by either the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ [at UAB]) 35 or the Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (SAQLI [at VUMC]). 36,37 The oxygen desaturation index (ODI3) (the number of times per hour of sleep that the blood oxygen saturation drops by 3 percentage points from baseline) and the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation < 90% were measured to determine the magnitude of chronic intermittent hypoxia at long-term follow-up. The proportion of patients with an ODI3 < 5 events/h and an ODI3 ≤ 15 events/h was also calculated.…”

Erectile dysfunction and disease-specific quality of life in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

“…13,14 All items that had an influence on the QOL of these patients were identified. The SAQLI consists of 35 questions organized into four domains: daily function, social interactions, emotional function and symptoms.…”

Pure Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Erectile Dysfunction

“…The diagnosis of OSA was also confirmed with PSG. Although some authors noted an association between OSA and quality of life, different studies produced conflicting results (27,28). These studies relied upon general health questionnaires, such as the SF-36 and satisfaction with life scale to evaluate quality of life.…”