Reliability and validity of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index among frontline COVID-19 health care workers using classical test theory and item response theory

Abstract

Study Objectives: The applicability of sleep-related scales to frontline medical staff for the COVID-19 pandemic has not been fully proved, so sleep survey results lack credibility and accuracy, creating difficulties for the guidance and treatment of frontline medical staff with sleep disorders, which is not conducive to the prevention and control of COVID-19. This study sought to analyze the reliability and validity of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) among frontline medical staff fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A network questionnaire survey was used to investigate the PSQI among frontline medical staff who fought COVID-19 in Wuhan, China from March 19 to April 15, 2020. Combined with classical test theory and item response theory, the content validity, internal consistency, construct validity, and other aspects of the PSQI were evaluated. Results: According to classical test theory, content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity of the PSQI were good. But the internal consistency was better after the deletion of the "daytime dysfunction" subscale. With regard to item response theory, difficulty, the differential item function, and the Wright map performed well. Conclusions: The original PSQI showed acceptable applicability in frontline COVID-19 medical staff, and its characteristics moderately improved after the "daytime dysfunction" subscale was removed.

Educational degree differences in the association between work stress and depression among Chinese healthcare workers: Job satisfaction and sleep quality as the mediators

“…The global PSQI score, which ranges from 0 to 21, is then calculated by adding the seven component scores; higher numbers denote poorer sleep quality ( 40 ). Numerous investigations have utilized this scale, which has been found to have high reliability and validity ( 41 ). In this study, the Kronbach α coefficient of PSQI was 0.757, the KMO value was 0.741, and the significance of the Bartlett sphericity test was p < 0.001, which indicated good reliability and validity of PSQI.…”

Evaluation of lifestyle behaviors, anxiety and depression in patients with hematologic disorders

“…The Chinese version of the PSQI was translated by Liu [23] in 1996. It has been subsequently applicated in different populations, including those with blood disorders, [24][25][26][27][28] and all indicate the Chinese version is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing sleep quality. In this study, the PSQI showed a fair Cronbach's alpha value of 0.693.…”

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over pilot study to investigate the efficacy of Rest-ZZZ formula in healthy participants with occasional sleeplessness

“…However, the HPSQI assesses sleep-related quality of life (QoL) using seven questions assessed on a 5-points Likert scale to provide a comprehensive measure of daytime functioning, while the PSQI uses only two. Previous research has questioned the validity of the PSQI daytime dysfunction subscale and noted that it did not provide a clear distinction between sleep problems and daytime functioning [ 19 , 20 ].…”