Clinical Validity of the PROMIS Pediatric Sleep Measures across Populations of Children with Chronic Illnesses and Neurodevelopment Disorders

Objective To examine the clinical validity of the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pediatric Sleep Disturbance (SD) and Sleep-Related Impairment (SRI) short forms. Methods Youth (8-17 years) from clinical populations with known SDs (sleep clinic n = 126, autism n = 276, asthma n = 82, asthma thorn eczema n = 68) and the general population (n = 902) completed the PROMIS Pediatric SD and SRI 8-item short forms, along with established measures of sleep (Children's Report of Sleep Patterns, Sleep Habits Survey), PROMIS Pediatric Fatigue, and parent-reported clinical indicators (does child have sleep problem, use melatonin, use prescription sleep medication). Results Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated factorial invariance for all clinical groups. Significant differences between the general population and clinical groups were found for SD and SRI (medium to large effect sizes). Convergent validity was demonstrated through separate hierarchical regression models that showed significant associations between parent-reported clinical indicators and SD and SRI, above and beyond clinical group, as well as moderate to strong correlations between the PROMIS sleep measures and both established measures of sleep and fatigue. Conclusions The PROMIS Pediatric SD and SRI short forms provide clinicians and researchers a brief, accurate, and valid way to measure patient-reported sleep outcomes in pediatric populations.