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Published on: August 8, 2019
Measurement properties of the SUNRISE Study Parent Questionnaire for assessing sleep and sleep-related family
Zhiguang Zhang1, Chalchisa Abdeta1, Mohamed Souhaiel Chelly2
1Early Start, School of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Insights
The SUNRISE questionnaire reliably measures preschooler sleep and family practices. It shows good validity for sleep duration and timing, making it useful for global health studies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Child Development
- Public Health Surveillance
Background:
- Limited validated tools exist for global assessment of preschooler sleep and related family practices.
- Accurate measurement is crucial for understanding sleep's impact on child development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate the SUNRISE parent questionnaire against accelerometer data for preschooler sleep measurement.
- To assess the test-retest reliability of the SUNRISE questionnaire for sleep and family practices.
Main Methods:
- 1737 preschoolers (aged 4.4±0.6 years) from 30 countries participated.
- Sleep was measured using the SUNRISE questionnaire and Actigraph accelerometers.
- Validity and reliability were assessed using correlation, Bland-Altman plots, and ICC/Kappa statistics.
Main Results:
- The SUNRISE questionnaire showed good concurrent validity for sleep duration (r=0.43-0.75) and timing.
- Nighttime sleep duration differences had a small effect size (-14 min/d).
- High reliability was found for sleep (ICC=0.63-0.83) and family practice variables (ICC=0.81-0.94).
Conclusions:
- The SUNRISE questionnaire is a reliable tool for assessing preschooler sleep and family practices, especially in disadvantaged populations.
- It is suitable for global surveillance of nighttime sleep duration.
- The questionnaire can be used to study associations between sleep and health indicators in young children.
Background:
Few questionnaires with established measurement properties can globally measure sleep in preschoolers and sleep-related family practices.
Objective:
To examine (1) concurrent validity of the SUNRISE parent questionnaire against an accelerometer for measuring sleep in preschoolers and (2) test-retest reliability of the questionnaire for sleep and related family practices.
Methods:
Sleep was measured using the questionnaire and Actigraph GTX3+ accelerometer using a decision-tree algorithm and the Sadeh algorithm in 1737 preschoolers (4.4±0.6years) from 30 countries. Concurrent validity was examined using correlation analysis (duration, timing, and quality), paired t test or the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Bland-Altman plot (duration, timing), and analysis of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (variability). Test-retest variability was examined for sleep and family practice variables in a subsample of 163 participants (4.3±0.6years) from eight countries.
Results:
Questionnaire measures of sleep timing and duration were correlated with the accelerometer measures (r=0.43-0.75; p<.001). Although statistically significant mean differences were observed between questionnaire and accelerometer measures of sleep timing and duration variables, the difference in nighttime sleep duration had a small effect size (-14 min/d; Cohen's d=-0.2). The questionnaire was less able to provide adequate measurement for sleep quality and variability. High levels of reliability were observed for sleep (ICC=0.63-0.83; Kappa=0.53-0.62) and family practice (ICC=0.81-0.94; Kappa=0.73-0.86) variables.
Conclusion:
The SUNRISE questionnaire appears reliable in assessing preschooler sleep characteristics and related family practices, particularly in disadvantaged settings. It could be used in global surveillance of nighttime sleep duration and in studies examining associations of sleep timing and duration with health indicators in preschoolers.

