A new method for evaluating and reporting the severity of snoring

Abstract

AbstractWe propose a new questionnaire-based method for evaluating and reporting the severity of snoring, the snoring scale score (SSS), which provides an assessment of the loudness, frequency and periodicity of snoring sound. Ninety-nine patients with snoring problems were assessed and the results of 19 patients who underwent surgery to reduce snoring were reported using the SSS and the linear analogue score (LAS) at six weeks and six months after surgery. All patients reported reduction of snoring on both the SSS and LAS after surgery although minor discrepancies of reporting were found in six patients when comparisons were made between reporting of outcome using the SSS and LAS. Our study suggested that the SSS offers a uniform, comprehensive and simple to understand method for the evaluation, grading and reporting of snoring which is not currently available.