Validating a Novel Driving Simulation-based MWT Against the Standard MWT in an OSA-cohort Challenged by CPAP-withdrawal (DS-MWT2)

July 14, 2025 updated by: Stefan Lakämper

Validating a Novel Driving Simulation-based MWT Against the Standard MWT in an OSA-cohort Challenged by CPAP-withdrawal - a Monocentric, Controlled, Randomized, Crossover Trial

In brief, the proposed study will evaluate a recently proposed naturalistic, driving simulation test to identify and measure sleepiness behind the wheel, one of the most underestimated causes of road accidents. The proposed test offers higher ecological validity and might complement somnological tests that are standard, but rarely performed. Thus, the test might provide traffic medicine and sonologists with an effective tool, that can also directly convey the risks of excessive daytime sleepiness to drivers and thus, in combination, effectively aid in traffic medicine's mandate to avoid preventable road fatalities.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a symptomatic condition resulting from too little or compromised sleep, caused by psycho-social stress (shiftwork, lifestyle) or medical conditions (obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), narcolepsy). Driving with untreated EDS might lead to sleepy/drowsy driving and microsleep, which is considered to be one of the highest-ranking causes of road accidents. Sleepiness and its dangers on the wheel might subjectively not be registered by the affected drivers. Also, subjective sleepiness might not correlate with somnological measurements that are also crucial for legally determining the fitness to drive (FTD).

There exists a variety of partially complementary tools to evaluate the extent of EDS. Mean sleep latency obtained in the maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT) is widely, but not uniformly, considered to be one of the most objective measures to evaluate EDS, especially in the context of driving performance. However, there is inconsistent or insufficient evidence for MWTs to reliably predict the FTD in general, potentially as its result might be strongly influenced by motivation. Moreover, patients might not relate low mean MWT-latencies to their own and other's risks in traffic.

A need for improved tools to measure EDS was formulated. It remains open, whether the MWT should be replaced or complemented by, for example, future road-side metabolomics-tests detecting sleepiness in traffic or whether the MWT should be adapted to better convey a.) the risks of EDS in traffic and b.) its meaning for the determination of the FTD.

With this need in mind the investigators proposed furnishing the maintenance of wakefulness test with improved ecological validity to provide an improved tool for the assessment of the effect of excessive daytime sleepiness on the fitness to drive: recently published results from an exploratory feasibility study suggested it to be well possible to transfer the MWT-paradigm to a driving simulator (DS) with high user acceptance. The published result's implication and relevance was well received: the new test, DS-MWT, might complement somnological MWTs in pneumology and neurology. I might provide a naturalistic and relatable tool to determine EDS in traffic medicine, who is institutionally responsible for determining the FTD. This is also desirable, because prohibitively high cost - in time, money and instrumentation - often prevent a standard MWT in standard care of sleep-related medical conditions. Potentially, the use of the DS-MWT might help reduce the number of preventable road fatalities by more often identifying sleepy individuals before they get behind the wheel.

However, for this goal to be achieve, it remains to be evaluated whether the latencies obtained in classical or simulation conditions are comparable and whether obtained latencies actually reflect other clinical parameters of EDS relating to underlying medical conditions, such as for example OSA. This represents a significant gap of evidence for both medical experts in pneumology and traffic medicine, but also for affected drivers. This gap will be filled by systematically comparing classical and simulation-based MWTs by means of their resulting latencies. In a within-study setup of 36 highly adherent OSA-patients, experiments will be related to a main medical comparator, a ≥7-day continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)-withdrawal (W) and subsequent -resumption or continuation (C), respectively. There will be a control group of 18 healthy participants for comparison.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

54

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

    • ZRH
      • Zurich, ZRH, Switzerland, 8050
        • Recruiting
        • Division of Traffic Medicine, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria (OSA patients): adult drivers, diagnosed OSA, established CPAP-treatment regime, highly adherent and compliant within the last 6 months (>5h, >80% of days), at impaired eyesight with more than +/- 5 diopter or astigmatism, contact lenses are required (for eye tracking)

Inclusion criteria (healthy comparison croup): adult drivers, no declared psychiatric disorders, no declared sleep-related diagnosis, at impaired eyesight with more than +/- 5 diopter or astigmatism, contact lenses are required (for eye tracking)

Exclusion criteria (for both groups): sensibility to motion sickness (kinetosis, dizziness, etc. in 5 min screening drive), professional drivers (if working during the study period), inability to understand the study procedure for linguistic or cognitive reasons.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: OSA - W(first) + MD
allocated OSA-participants will perform test sequence M -> D first after 7d CPAP-withdrawal, then after ≥7d CPAP.
7-day-long CPAP-withdrawal
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description
Experimental: OSA - W(first) + DM
allocated OSA-participants will perform test sequence D -> M first after 7d CPAP-withdrawal, then after ≥7d CPAP.
7-day-long CPAP-withdrawal
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description
Experimental: OSA - C(first) + MD
allocated OSA-participants will perform test sequence M -> D first after ≥7d CPAP, then after 7d CPAP-withdrawal.
7-day-long CPAP-withdrawal
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description
Experimental: OSA - C(first) + DM
allocated OSA-participants will perform test sequence D-> M first after ≥7d CPAP, then after 7d CPAP-withdrawal.
7-day-long CPAP-withdrawal
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description
Other: Healthy control MD - DM
healthy participants will perform test sequence M -> D first , then D -> M
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description
Other: Healthy control DM - MD
healthy participants will perform test sequence D -> M first , then M -> D.
Test Sequence M or D as specified in arm description

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
significant difference between mean MWT- and DS-MWT-latencies
Time Frame: MWT- and DS-MWT-latencies are measured in two consecutive days during CPAP-treatment and after 7 days CPAP-withdrawal (intervention) in randomized order.
significant difference between mean latencies measured in classical maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT, M) and driving simulation-based maintenance of wakefulness test (DS-MWT, D) and DS-MWT-latencies.
MWT- and DS-MWT-latencies are measured in two consecutive days during CPAP-treatment and after 7 days CPAP-withdrawal (intervention) in randomized order.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Stefan Lakämper, Dr. rer. nat., University of Zurich
  • Principal Investigator: Esther I Schwarz, PD, Dr. med., University of Zurich
  • Principal Investigator: Kristina Keller, Dr. med., University of Zurich

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 14, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

April 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 6, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

March 12, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 17, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 14, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Anonymized raw data will be made available upon request.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

starting after publication of study protcol and/or results

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

upon request by mail

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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