A Study of Prevalence of Sleep Apnea Among Commercial Truck Drivers [Final Report]
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Trucking Research Institute and sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), aimed to estimate the prevalence of sleep apnea among commercial truck drivers and assess its impact on driving-related performance. The research was motivated by previous reports suggesting extremely high rates of sleep apnea in this population and the known risks of excessive sleepiness for commercial vehicle safety. The study sought to determine prevalence rates, examine the relationship between apnea severity and functional decrements, and profile the sleep characteristics of commercial drivers. The researchers employed a two-stage design involving a random sample of 4,826 commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders in Pennsylvania. After an initial survey of 1,391 respondents, participants were stratified into high-risk and low-risk groups based on a Multivariable Apnea Prediction (MAP) score derived from age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and symptom reports. More than 400 subjects underwent overnight laboratory testing, including polysomnography to measure the apnea/hypopnea index (AHI), actigraphy to monitor sleep duration at home, and objective daytime performance tests. These tests included the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT), Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), and a Divided Attention Driving Task (DADT) designed to simulate cognitive load. The study found that sleep apnea prevalence in CDL holders was lower than previously reported but still significant: 17.6% had mild apnea (AHI 5–15), 5.8% had moderate apnea (AHI 15–30), and 4.7% had severe apnea (AHI ≥30). Prevalence increased with age and obesity, with a multiplicative interaction between these factors. Notably, shorter average sleep durations were associated with higher apnea prevalence. While self-reported sleepiness did not correlate with apnea severity or sleep duration, objective tests revealed significant performance deficits in individuals with severe apnea and those sleeping less than six hours per night. Specifically, severe apnea and short sleep duration produced comparable decrements in alertness and reaction time. A MAP score below 0.47 was found to have a high negative predictive value for severe apnea, allowing for its exclusion in 57.2% of the sample. The findings identify sleep apnea and chronic partial sleep deprivation as major concerns for commercial driver health and safety. The study concludes that self-reports are unreliable for identifying at-risk drivers, necessitating objective assessment methods. Consequently, the FMCSA plans to implement educational programs regarding sleep apnea risks. The authors recommend further research into the role of sleep apnea in crash causation, the development of cost-effective screening strategies, and expert review to establish public policy recommendations for identifying and treating impaired drivers.
Key finding
Severe sleep apnea (AHI≥30 episodes/hour) and short sleep duration (less than 6 hours) were associated with marked decrements in objective performance measures, with the impact of severe apnea occurring in 4.7% of the driver population.
Methodology
lab_experiment
Sample size: 406
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: physiological data