Validation study of the Arabic translation of the sleep regularity questionnaire (SRQ)

The Sleep Regularity Questionnaire (SRQ) assesses sleep regularity, increasingly recognized as essential for overall health. However, there is a lack of an Arabic validated version. This study aims to translate the SRQ into Arabic and evaluate its psychometric properties, including reliability, validity, factor structure, and convergent validity.

A total of 481 participants (53% males, 47% females; median age = 39) from four Arabic countries completed the SRQ-Arabic, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). The psychometric properties of the SRQ-Arabic were examined using reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), invariance analysis (IA), bifactor Item Response Theory (IRT), surface response analysis, and convergent validity assessment.

The SRQ-Arabic demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.70, McDonald's ω = 0.66, Guttman's λ2 = 0.73) and a factorial structure with acceptable overall fit (CFI/TLI > 90), though some indices (RMSEA = 0.09) suggest areas for model improvement. CVA supported its two-factor structure, IRT analysis identified strong items (D6, D8) and others requiring refinement (D1, D3, D5) due to low discrimination or extreme difficulty. The surface response analysis revealed significant negative associations between SRQ scores and both PSQI (p < 0.001) and AIS (p < 0.001). The SRQ-Arabic total score correlated with PSQI (r = 0.39, p < 0.001) and AIS (r = 0.32, p < 0.001), supporting its convergent validity.

The SRQ-Arabic is a reliable and valid tool for efficiently assessing sleep regularity in Arabic-speaking populations, with potential for refinement to improve sensitivity.