To validate the GOAL questionnaire as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) screening tool in bariatric surgery (BS) patients and compare it with other existing instruments.
Before performing full polysomnography (PSG), all participants were screened for OSA with the following instruments: GOAL, STOP, STOP-Bang, No-Apnea, NoSAS, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Discrimination was assessed by area under the curve (AUC), while predictive parameters were calculated by contingency tables. Correlation was evaluated by the Spearman correlation coefficient (r). OSA severity was classified based on the apnea/hypopnea index (AHI): ≥ 5.0/h (OSA), ≥ 15.0/h (OSA), and ≥ 30.0/h (OSA).
Overall, 814 BS individuals (70.8% of females) were enrolled. We found a high prevalence of OSA (82.6%), OSA (60.0%), and OSA (38.8%). GOAL questionnaire was positively correlated with the AHI (r = 0.570, p  0.05), and performed significantly better than STOP and ESS (all p values < 0.001).
In a cohort of BS patients, GOAL, No-Apnea, STOP-Bang, and NoSAS, but not ESS and STOP, enable satisfactory discrimination as OSA screening instruments at all disease severity levels.

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