Psychometric properties of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep measure

Sleep is an active and highly organized biological process that is an important component of life. Self-report measures of sleep provide information that can be useful for characterizing the quality of sleep in subgroups of the population. A 12-item self-report sleep measure, the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep measure, was developed and evaluated previously in a sample of 3445 individuals with chronic illness.

In this study, we evaluate the psychometric properties of the MOS Sleep measure in a nationally representative sample of 1011 US adults aged 18 and older and in a sample of 173 adults with neuropathic pain participating in a clinical drug trial.

The average age of the general population sample was 46; 51% were female and 81% were white. The average age of the sample of adults with neuropathic pain was 72; 53% were female and 95% were white. Internal consistency reliability estimates for the MOS Sleep scales were 0.73 or higher, with the exception of the daytime somnolence scale in the US general population, which was 0.63. At baseline of the clinical trial, the neuropathic pain patients reported significantly more sleep disturbance and daytime somnolence, as well as less quantity and adequacy of sleep than patients in the general US population. The MOS Sleep scales were found to be responsive to change in the clinical trial with statistically significant improvements observed after administration of pregabalin for sleep disturbance (standardized response mean, SRM=-0.76, P=0.0007), shortness of breath (SRM=-0.20, P=0.0302), sleep adequacy (SRM=0.57, P=0.0014), sleep quantity (SRM=0.55, P=0.0086), and sleep problems (SRM=-0.62, P=0.0036).

This study provides further support for the reliability and validity of the MOS Sleep measure. The instrument can be used to assess important aspects of sleep perceived by adults in the general population or participating in clinical studies.