The development and validation of a revised version of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS Sleep-R)

BACKGROUND: The 12-item Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS Sleep Scale) has been used to capture patient-reported sleep problems in hundreds of studies. A revised version of the MOS Sleep Scale (MOS Sleep-R) was developed that uses simplified response sets, provides interpretable norm-based scoring, and has two recall versions (one-week or four-week). The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties (reliability and construct validity) of the MOS Sleep-R using data from a representative sample of U.S. adults. METHODS: Standardization of raw scores into norm-based T-scores (mean = 50, standard deviation = 10) was based on data from a 2009 U.S. internet-based general population survey. The internal consistency reliability of multi-item subscales and global sleep problems indices for both one-week and four-week recall forms of the MOS Sleep-R were examined using Cronbach’s alphas and inter-item correlations. Construct validity was tested by comparing item-scale correlations between items within subscales with item-scale correlations across subscales. Scale-level convergent validity was tested using correlations with measures including generic health-related quality of life (i.e., SF-36v2) and other relevant outcomes (e.g., job performance, number of days in bed due to illness or injury, happiness/satisfaction with life, frequency of stress/pressure in daily life, the impact of stress/pressure on health, and overall health). RESULTS: The one-week and four-week recall forms of the MOS Sleep-R were completed by 2045 and 2033 respondents, respectively. The psychometric properties of the one-week and four-week forms were similar. All multi-item subscales and global index scores showed adequate internal consistency reliability (all Cronbach’s alpha > 0.75). Patterns of inter-item and item-scale correlations support the scaling assumptions of the MOS Sleep-R. Patterns of correlations between MOS Sleep-R scores with criterion measures of health-related quality of life and other outcomes indicated adequate construct validity. CONCLUSIONS: The MOS Sleep-R introduces a number of revisions to the original survey, including simplified response sets, the introduction of a one-week recall form, and norm-based scoring that enhances interpretability of scores. Both the one-week and four-week recall period forms of the MOS Sleep-R demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and construct validity in a U.S. general population sample.