STOP-BANG Questionnaire
Screens for obstructive sleep apnea risk to guide referral for polysomnography
- Highest activation tier
- Mandatory
- How it is scored
- Scored in code; a detected disagreeing draft value is flagged for correction
- Scoring type
- point sum
- Care settings
- Emergency department, Inpatient, Outpatient
When it activates
Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The STOP-BANG Questionnaire can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:
- OSA screening
- Pre-operative sleep apnea assessment
- Snoring evaluation
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Hypertension with sleep-disordered breathing concern
A coded diagnosis can also activate it. ICD-10 prefixes carried by the registry: G47.33.
Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to pulmonology, perioperative, hospital medicine. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.
Inputs the note needs
8 inputs. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; an input marked "asks you" is requested as a clarification when it is undocumented.
| Input | Type | Unit / options | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snoring loudly (louder than talking or heard through closed doors) | symptom | ||
| Often feel tired, fatigued, or sleepy during daytime | symptom | ||
| Anyone observed breathing stopping during sleep | history | ||
| Treated for or have high blood pressure | history | ||
| BMI >35 kg/m2 | vital | kg/m² | |
| Age >50 years | age | ||
| Neck circumference >40 cm (16 inches) | exam | cm | |
| Male gender | history |
Scoring
S=Snoring (+1), T=Tiredness (+1), O=Observed apnea (+1), P=Pressure/HTN (+1), B=BMI >35 (+1), A=Age >50 (+1), N=Neck >40cm (+1), G=Gender male (+1). Total 0-8.
Snoring Snoring loudly (louder than talking or heard through closed doors) + Tired Often feel tired, fatigued, or sleepy during daytime + Observed apnea Anyone observed breathing stopping during sleep + BP/HTN Treated for or have high blood pressure + BMI>35 BMI >35 kg/m2 + Age>50 Age >50 years + Neck>40cm Neck circumference >40 cm (16 inches) + Male Male gender
Interpretation
0-2: Low risk for OSA. 3-4: Intermediate risk — consider polysomnography based on clinical suspicion. 5-8: High risk for moderate-to-severe OSA — polysomnography or home sleep test recommended. Score >=3 sensitivity 93% for moderate OSA, 100% for severe OSA. Pre-operative high score: plan for difficult airway, postoperative monitoring.
Evidence
Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator; guideline version: Chung 2008.
- Chung F et al. STOP questionnaire: a tool to screen patients for obstructive sleep apneaChung et al. (STOP-BANG) 2008 · 2008 · Level I · link last verified 2026-03-28
How Scribeable handles it in the note
When an encounter activates the STOP-BANG Questionnaire at the mandatory tier, Scribeable resolves its inputs from the transcript, the pasted chart context and any charted labs, and asks you for a missing input you can supply before the note is finalised. Bedside-exam and separately ordered study values are not requested one input at a time; a calculator that carries a combined clarification question may still put that single question to you.
The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. If the draft states a STOP-BANG Questionnaire value that disagrees with the computed one, the disagreement is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation before you see the note.
Classified as a questionnaire: a patient-reported or clinician-rated instrument, where a spare activation carries low harm.
See it activate on your own encounter
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