Validation of the Portuguese Variant of the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQPT)

Abstract

Introduction: Differences in the manner circadian clocks entrain to the 24-h day are expressions of different chronotypes that can range from extreme early to extreme late, from proverbial larks to owls. The Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) was one of the first to assess daily preference based on subjective self-assessment-a psychological construct. The later developed Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) uses instead the actual sleep timing to assess chronotype. It calculates the midsleep point, halfway between onset and offset on work-free days (MSF), which is then corrected for potential oversleep on free days compensating for sleep debt accumulated over the workweek (MSF sc). MSF sc is expressed in local time and is thought to be a proxy for "phase of entrainment" of the circadian clock. The MCTQ-derived chronotype is therefore a biological construct. In the present report, we validate the Portuguese variant (MCTQ PT) of the MCTQ. Portugal is of particular interest, since it is thought to consist of especially late chronotypes. Methods: We have used three methods to assess the timing of daily behavior, namely, the chronotype (MCTQ), the daily preference (rMEQ), and a simple self-assessment (time-of-day type). A total of 80 healthy adults living in Portugal, with age and sex distributed according to the Portuguese population, were recruited. We analyzed 4 weeks of continuous records of actimetry data to validate the MCTQ PT and used the rMEQ to compare between a biological chronotype (sleep timing) and a psychological chronotype (daily preference). MCTQ variables were analyzed by descriptive statistics; correspondence between measurements was done by Spearman correlations or cross-tabulation; in a subset of 41 individuals, test-retest reliability was assessed. Results: MCTQ-derived variables (MSF, MSW, MSF sc) correlated highly with their counterparts calculated from actimetry (MSW: rho = 0.697; MSF: rho = 0.747; MSF sc : rho = 0.646; all p < 0.001). The MCTQ assessment of the chronotype showed good test-retest reliability (rho = 0.905; p < 0.001). The rMEQ score correlates with MSF sc (rho = −0.695; p < 0.001), and the agreement for the self-assessment with the MSF sc was fair (kw = 0.386; p < 0.001).

Evaluation of sleep characteristics of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

“…It has also been validated and translated into Portuguese. 12 , 13 It consists of questions related to the chronotype, the latency of night sleep (estimated time to fall asleep), the means used to wake up (spontaneously, alarm clock or someone calling), the total time in bed and sleep efficiency (total sleep time over total bed time), for both school days and weekend days. The chronotype is obtained by the midpoint of sleep on weekend days (MSF).…”

Social jetlag, a novel predictor for high cardiovascular risk in blue‐collar workers following permanent atypical work schedules

“…The Portuguese variant of the MCTQ (MCTQ PT ) (Reis et al., 2020 ) was used to compute absolute SJL, individual chronotype (mid‐sleep time on free days, sleep corrected [MSF sc ]) and sleep duration on both workdays and work‐free days. Chronotyping is based on the MSF, which is corrected for potential compensatory sleep resulting from sleep deprivation during the workweek, i.e.…”

The impact of daylight‐saving time (DST) on patients with delayed sleep‐wake phase disorder (DSWPD)

“…Socio‐demographic data, number of workdays, date of appointment, date of melatonin collection and DLMO phase, as well as sleep timings for work ( w ) and work‐free ( f ) days, were retrieved from the clinical records. We were able to reconstruct the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) variables 15 from the self‐reports stored in the clinical records 16 : sleep onset time on work‐ (SO w ) and work‐free days (SO f ); mid‐sleep timing on workdays (MS w ) and mid‐sleep timing on work‐free days (MS f ); mid‐sleep timing on free‐days corrected for the oversleep accumulated over the workweek (MSF sc ); sleep end time on work‐ (SE w ) and work‐free days (SE f ). We additionally computed sleep durations (SE‐SO) on work‐ (SD w ) and work‐free days (SD f ), weekly sleep duration (SD week ) and social jet lag (SJL; quantified by the difference between MS f and MS w ) 17 …”