Operational characteristics of a psychomotor vigilance task as a diagnostic test for sleep deprivation

BELLONE GIANNINA; MUL FEDELE MALENA L.; ABULAFIA CAROLINA; PLANO SANTIAGO; VIGO DANIEL

Colonia

Simposio; XV Latin American Symposium on Chronobiology; 2019

There is evidence that prolonged activity together with sleep deprivation have a negative impact on health and well-being, increasing the risk of accidents. The time needed to respond to a stimulus may be increased in sleep deprivation conditions and can be measured by simple reaction time (SRT) tests. However, the operational characteristics of these tests have not been fully reported in field studies. The objective of this study was to report sensibility (SN), specificity (SP), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of a SRT test applied to the detection of sleep deprivation. In this cross-sectional study, a three-minute SRT test developed for tablet devices was conducted in 137 healthy volunteers (48 females), with a mean age of 35 ± 11 years. We used a ROC curve to establish a cut-off SRT value of 256ms to divide participants in slow and fast respondents. In addition, a questionnaire derived from Fatigue Risk Management System guidelines was administered to divide participants into two groups based on prior levels of sleep and activity. The prevalence of sleep deprivation was 15.3%. The proportion of slow respondents was higher within sleep-deprived subjects (χ2 = 13.06, p < 0.001). The AUC of the ROC curve was .745 ± .064, p < 0.001. Operational characteristics were SN:0.71; SP:0.70; PPV:0.30; NPV: 0.93. The SRT showed to be a valid tool to exclude the presence of sleep deprivation in the general population.