The Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) Construct ion and validation of an instrument to evaluate sleep disturbances in childhood and adolescence

Abstract

SUMMARYTo attempt a categorization of sleep disorders in children, we developed a 27 item Likert-type rating scale (Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children: SDSC) and assessed the psychometric properties was developed. The scale was distributed to the mothers of 1304 children (1 157 controls, mean age 9 . 8~; 147 sleep disorder subjects, mean age 9.2y, composed of four clinical groups: Insomnia 39 subjects, Hypersomnia 12 subjects, Respiratory disturbances during sleep 25 subjects and Parasomnias 7 1 subjects). The internal consistency was high in controls (0.79) and remained at a satisfactory level in sleep disorder subjects (0.71); the testhetest reliability was adequate for the total (I. =0.71) and single item scores. The factor analysis (variance explained 44.21%) yielded six factors which represented the most common areas of sleep disorders in childhood and adolescence. Enuresis was the only item with a factor loading lower than 0.40 and with a low inter-item correlation and was therefore eliminated, resulting in a final scale of 26 items. The re-evaluation of the sample, using the factor scores, supported the validity and the discriminating capacity of the scales between controls and the four clinical groups. The correlation between factor scores corroborated the hypothesis that childhood sleep disturbances are not independent entities nor do they cluster into different groupings related to each other. The SDSC appears to be a useful tool in evaluating the sleep disturbances of school-age children in clinical and nonclinical populations.

Headache disorders as risk factors for sleep disturbances in school aged children

“…One hundred and seventy children aged 5-10 years (mean age 8.12, SD±1.44) referred between January 2004 and May 2005 to university third level headache centres in Naples and Rome were studied with the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children questionnaire (SDSC) [8] to assess sleep habits, and were compared with 170 matched children.…”

Sleep quality, duration and behavioral symptoms among 5–6-year-old children

“…The parents filled in a 26-item sleep questionnaire (the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children, SDSC) that has a high internal consistency (0.79), and re-test reliability (0.71) [3]. There is one question concerning sleep duration with the response alternatives of 9-11, 9-8, 7-8, 5-7, and \5 h. Long sleepers were defined as those who were rated to sleep 9-11 h, and short sleepers were rated to sleep 8-9, 7-8, or \7 h. Another question concerned sleep latency with the response alternatives \15, 15-30, 30-45, 45-60, and [60 min.…”

“…The subscale scores were calculated if less than 20% of the information was missing on the corresponding scale (3 cases per scale were excluded because of this criterion). The total score was dichotomized at 39 points as suggested originally by Bruni et al [3], which was the 74th percentile in the present sample (74.4% of the cases had B39 points). This cut-off has a sensitivity of 0.89 and specificity of 0.74 when the cases with sleep disturbances were determined in a clinical evaluation [3].…”

“…The total score was dichotomized at 39 points as suggested originally by Bruni et al [3], which was the 74th percentile in the present sample (74.4% of the cases had B39 points). This cut-off has a sensitivity of 0.89 and specificity of 0.74 when the cases with sleep disturbances were determined in a clinical evaluation [3]. The other subscale scores were dichotomized at the 75th percentile.…”

Prevalence of sleep disorders in children of a public hospital in São Paulo

“…The group we studied presented 5 children that lived in institutions; they were classified socially as 0. Sleep variables were assessed through the sleep disturbance scale for children (SDSC) 8 , recently validated in Brazil 9 , comprising of 26 questions and stratified answers in a Likert scale, according to frequency.…”