Epworth Sleepiness Scale
The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is a method for the detection of daytime sleepiness by using a very short questionnaire. The method is used in the sleep medicine for the diagnosis of sleep disorders.
It is an instrument of nichtapparativen diagnosis of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine.
Content of the questionnaire
Queried is (in fact ) to fall asleep retrospectively the subjective assessment of a person in terms of probability, in eight predefined typical situations. The classification is in an ascending scale of 0 to 3 The results of the eight questions will be added to a value. A score of 0-9 is considered normal, problems with sleep and higher values , medical advice should be sought. For an accurate diagnosis, further tests and investigations are required.
The questionnaire was originally created with the intention to create through consistent word choice comparability. With the respondent's results will not be discussed before the complete filling.
Application
In addition to the acquisition of daytime sleepiness in the early diagnosis of the test can also be re-used to document success of a therapy. As an advantage over other questionnaires and instrumental diagnostic of low effort on the part of the patient and the rapid evaluation can be seen. Limits are set by the test already, that the queried situations must be known to the patients, children are excluded. Are assessed longer periods, but not circadian variations.
In the evaluation as a classifier which is based on ESS narcolepsy both high specificity (100 %) and high sensitivity ( 93.5 %).
The questionnaire is used explicitly in the guideline for narcolepsy of the German Society of Neurology (DGN ) in the necessary steps in the initial diagnosis of narcolepsy. It is according to the guideline " non -restorative sleep / sleep " of the German Society of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine ( DGSM ) used in the diagnosis of other sleep disorders.
Alternatives
To determine the severity of daytime sleepiness a variety of methods are used in sleep medicine and other fields depending on the issue. For diagnostic apparatus including multiple sleep latency test ( MSLT ) and multiple wake Stay Test ( MWT), for nichtapparativen diagnosis, the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS ) and many other questionnaires.
The methods take into account to varying degrees in each aspects of the Tagesschläfigkeit.
History
The test was introduced in 1991 by Murray W. Johns ( Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, Australia). Over the years, the text has been translated into several other languages ( German, Finnish, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Chinese / Mandarin ) and partially validated in these versions. Meanwhile, it is used worldwide.
From the DGSM a German version was created, to which normative data have been published. In healthy subjects achieved 85% of the subjects had a total value of less than 10, the ESS for the entire group was 6.6 ± 3.5 (SD).