The development of Paediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Screening Tool (POSAST): A Pilot Study

Abstract

Paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a serious underidentified condition partly due to gaps in available screeners. This pilot study developed and evaluated the Paediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Screening Tool (POSAST) for caregiver report. A cross‐sectional online survey recruited parents/caregivers of children aged 2–12 years (N = 53). Items were generated from literature and expert input (sleep specialist, ENT) and organised into nocturnal/daytime symptom domains with selected risk markers. Internal consistency, corrected item–total correlations, and associations with child characteristics (age, sleep duration, BMI, asthma) were examined. The full 23-item POSAST showed moderate reliability (α = .715); refinement based on psychometric criteria yielded an 11-item total scale with improved reliability (α = .781), alongside 5-item Daytime (α = .709) and 6-item Nighttime (α = .659) subscales. Younger age correlated with higher POSAST totals (ρ = −.31, p = .046); a simple regression showed a non-significant trend (B = −0.312, R² = .076, p = .077). Sleep duration, BMI, and asthma were not significantly associated I our sample. Symptom endorsement suggested community salience of restless sleep and mouth breathing, while “unusual sleep positions” attracted high “don’t know” responses, indicating a need for pictorial exemplars and frequency anchors. Findings support POSAST’s feasibility and preliminary reliability/construct validity for community triage, with clear targets for refinement and a planned validation programme against physiological reference standards.