Confirmatory factor analysis of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in rheumatoid arthritis patients

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the factor structure of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The sample included 107 patients with RA, 88 females and seven males, with an average age of 56.09 years, recruited from the greater Southern California area. Confirmatory factor analysis evaluated single, two- and three-factor models. The single factor solution yielded a poor fit to the data. While the three-factor solution had the best fit, the two-factor solution, comprised of sleep efficiency and perceived sleep quality factors, was optimal because it had very good fit, and acceptable reliability for its individual factors. Clinical indices were consistently correlated with the sleep quality factor, but not with the sleep efficiency factor.