Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 21, 2025
Author Spotlight: Unveiling the Connection Between Sleep Disorders and Cognitive Symptoms in Depression
Published on: April 26, 2024
The Childhood and Adolescent Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire (CASEQ): Development and validation of an ICSD-3-based
Luhar Zulfiqar1, Biswaroop Chakrabarty1, Sheffali Gulati2
1Child Neurology Division, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Insights
A new screening questionnaire effectively identifies sleep disorders in children and adolescents. This tool simplifies diagnosis, offering high accuracy compared to traditional methods.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Diagnostic Tool Development
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Sleep disorders are prevalent in children and adolescents.
- Polysomnography is the gold standard but is time-consuming.
- A need exists for a simpler screening tool.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a screening questionnaire for pediatric sleep disorders.
- To base the questionnaire on the International Classification of Sleep Disorders-3.
- To assess the questionnaire's psychometric properties.
Main Methods:
- Developed the Childhood and Adolescent Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire (CASEQ) in English and Hindi.
- Content validation by 8 multidisciplinary experts.
- Administered to 750 parents; 100 children underwent polysomnography and clinical evaluation.
Main Results:
- The CASEQ demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.8).
- Overall sensitivity and specificity were 85% and 100%, respectively.
- High accuracy was observed for specific sleep disorder subgroups.
Conclusions:
- The CASEQ is a valid and reliable screening tool for pediatric sleep problems.
- Its simplicity and translatability make it suitable for community and hospital settings.
- CASEQ aids in early identification and management of childhood sleep disorders.
Abstract:
Sleep disorders are common in children and adolescents. Polysomnography is the gold-standard diagnostic method; however, it is a tedious procedure. The objective of the study was to develop a screening questionnaire for sleep problems based on International Classification of Sleep Disorders-3 in children and adolescents, and validate it with clinical evaluation and polysomnography. A questionnaire was developed in English and Hindi with content validation by eight multidisciplinary experts. Respondents were parents of children and adolescents, aged 2-18 years, recruited from a public school and a tertiary care teaching hospital in north India. A subset of these children and adolescents underwent overnight polysomnography and detailed clinical evaluation within 4 weeks of applying the questionnaire. The questionnaire, named Childhood and Adolescent Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, contains primary questions covering all subgroups of disorders under International Classification of Sleep Disorders-3, and secondary questions on sleep hygiene and comorbidities. The questionnaire was filled by 750 respondents, out of which 100 cases underwent polysomnography and clinical evaluation. The internal consistency in the form of Cronbach's α was 0.8 for the questionnaire. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for the questionnaire in identifying those with sleep problems compared with detailed clinical and polysomnographic evaluations were 85%, 100%, 100% and 62.5%, respectively. For individual subgroups of disorders, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values varied between 72.7% and 100%, 88.9% and 100%, 62.5% and 100% and 81.6% and 100%, respectively. The Childhood and Adolescent Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire has good psychometric properties, moreover, its simplicity and translatability make it ideal for use at the community and hospital settings.
