Measuring sleep health in primary school-aged children: A systematic review of instruments and their content validity

Study Objectives This review aimed to summarize instruments that measure one or more domains of sleep health (i.e. duration, quality, efficiency, timing, daytime sleepiness and sleep-related behaviors) in a general population of 4-12-year old children, and to assess these instruments' content validity. Other measurement properties were evaluated for instruments with indications of sufficient content validity. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and EmBase. Methodological quality, content validity, and other measurement properties were assessed via the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) methodology. Instruments with indications of sufficient content validity (i.e. relevance, comprehensiveness and comprehensibility) were further evaluated on other measurement properties (i.e. other aspects of validity, reliability, responsiveness). A modified GRADE approach was applied to determine the quality of evidence. Results Twenty instruments, containing 36 subscales, were included. None of the instruments measured all sleep health domains. For five (subscales of) instruments sufficient relevance and comprehensibility was found. The quality of evidence ranged from very low to moderate. For these five instruments all additional measurement properties were assessed. Sufficient results were found for structural validity (n = 1), internal consistency (n = 1), and construct validity (n = 1), with quality of evidence ranging from very low to high. Conclusions Several (subscales of) instruments measuring domains of child sleep health showed good promise, demonstrating sufficient relevance, comprehensibility, and some also sufficient results on other measurement properties. However, more high quality studies on instrument development and the evaluation of measurement properties are required. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021224109

Automated summary

This review examined 20 instruments measuring child sleep health and found that 5 instruments showed sufficient relevance and comprehensibility, with varying quality of evidence. Additional measurement properties of these instruments were also assessed, but more high quality studies are needed to confirm their validity.