Self-reported driving violations as a putative mirror measure of real-world driving quality in individuals with and without Obstructive Sleep Apnea

•Driving records disclosed less driving violations than drivers themselves reported.•Drivers with OSA did not commit more driving violations than Controls.•The DVI and the driving simulator similarly discriminated drivers with OSA.•The DVI is a simple tool that can identify a driver with OSA who is likely to weave. Sleepiness is recognized as an important risk factor for risky driving and motor vehicle accidents. This study explores whether self-reported driving violations can be used as an accurate assessment of driving risk in individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We recruited 29 participants with OSA and 29 age- and biological sex-matched controls, obtained governmental sourced driving records for all participants and administered a monotonous driving simulator task to measure driving performance. We administered the Driving Violations Inventory (DVI) to all participants—a self-report measure that asks participants to record which of the official list of violations were committed. Data from DVI were compared with official driving records and with driving simulator results. Drivers with OSA did not have more registered driving violations than the control group. The overall number of self-reported violations was highly correlated with the driving simulator lateral position variable only for drivers with OSA. There were no significant associations between the number of official driving violations and simulator deviation of the lateral position for either group. Our findings indicate that the DVI is an accessible measure that could mirror some of the risk associated with impaired driving behavior in general, perhaps particularly for individuals with OSA.