Introduction: Daytime sleepiness is the most common daily manifestations of obstructive sleep apnea disorder that have a negative impact on many people's cognitive and behavioral performance. Patients who suffer from these disorders compared with healthy people exposed to increased risk of neuropsychiatric complications, driving accidents and occupational accidents that can reduce workers' ability to work. WAI (Work Ability Index) is an important and simple indicator that it can objectively measure the balance between work demand and the ability to work in workers.
Methods: This cross-sectional study has been done on 224 personnel in one of the South oil fields that have been randomly selected. All participants were asked to complete two questionnaires ESS (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) and WAI. The score of ≤ 13 for ESS questionnaire is considered as excessive daytime sleepiness and the score of ≥ 36 for WAI questionnaire was considered as poor ability to work.
Results: The mean index of WAI in this study was 40.22±5.48 and the mean score of ESS was 6.99 ± 4. The results of the statistical tests showed that there was a significant correlation between excessive daytime sleepiness and the ability to work in different age groups (p<0.5).
Conclusion: In this study, the WAI index was at an acceptable level (36<wai). the="" relationship="" between="" wai="" and="" ess="" shows="" that="" sleep="" modification="" treatment="" of="" diseases="" are="" leading="" to="" daytime="" sleepiness="" can="" improve="" workers'="" ability="" do="" work.