New AASM Patient-Reported Outcome Tool Valid for Monitoring Sleep Apnea
A patient-reported outcome tool developed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is clinically valid, reliable, and feasible for monitoring treatment response and longitudinal symptom progression in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to study findings published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
The AASM hired a contract research organization to develop the Patient-reported Longitudinal Assessment Tool for OSA (PLATO) after an academy task force found that no single sleep apnea assessment tool met complete criteria for clinical validity and feasibility. The development process included cognitive interviews with patients, pilot testing in 10 AASM-accredited sleep centers, and psychometric validation using longitudinal online surveys in 560 adults with sleep apnea and 40 controls.
Written at a fifth-grade reading level and available in English and Spanish, PLATO consists of 11 questions that assess sleep-related experiences over the past 7 days, including daytime sleepiness, snoring, morning headaches, and overall sleep quality. Patients can complete the questionnaire before treatment begins and at various times after treatment initiation to monitor response.
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According to the study, PLATO demonstrated strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and robust construct validity through moderate-to-strong correlations with established measures. PLATO scores also discriminated between sleep apnea severity levels and body mass index groups were responsive to symptom improvement.
“The PLATO questionnaire is ready for clinical implementation, and longitudinal data collection using this tool will improve our understanding of the value of sleep apnea treatment to patients, health care professionals, payers, and health systems,” said study lead author Douglas Kirsch, MD, of Atrium Health, Charlotte, North Carolina, and past president of AASM.
PLATO will be available in both paper and electronic formats, with the latter compatible with electronic health record platforms. It will be licensed for free for use in clinical practice.
“The PLATO questionnaire is a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome tool that fills a significant void in the field of sleep medicine,” said Dr Kirsch. “The 11-item questionnaire can be completed in less than 4 minutes and is easy to score, making it simple to implement, even in busy clinical settings.”
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