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Global Sleep Assessment Questionnaire (GSAQ)
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Global Sleep Assessment Questionnaire
 
 
Classification
Exploratory: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
Short Description of Instrument
11- item subject self-reported measure of symptoms in the last 4 weeks which allows classification into 7 different sleep disorders
Scoring
There are 10 subscales corresponding to the 7 different sleep disorders, multiple sleep disorders, and "none". Each subscale is ranked from 0–100. In the original paper, the authors give two different cut-off scores for each subscale with sensitivities and specificities. They do not recommend a specific score but leave it up to researchers/ clinicians to decide which score they want to use.
Rationale/Justification
Psychometric Properties:
Validity: 1) Content - consulted literature, sleep med experts; 2) Criterion validity -- subjects were evaluated by sleep med specialist and diagnosed with 7 single disorders, multiple disorders or as "healthy", mean scores of each subscale for each group compared to other groups; 3) Construct validity - convergent with SF-36 scores and MOS-Sleep Scale
 
Reliability:
Acceptable test–retest reliability (indicated by ICC values) was found for primary insomnia (0.86), insomnia–mental (0.72), OSA (0.88), RLS (0.77), PLM (0.80), shift work (0.92), no-disorder (0.77), and multiple sleep disorder (0.75).
 
Advantages:
1) Relatively short survey, 2) screens for a variety of sleep disorders to be exclusionary or co-morbid, 3) includes a category for sleep issues related to mood disorders, which is a common co-morbidity of ME/CFS, and 4) over 100 studies have used this questionnaire.
 
Limitations:
1) Not tested in ME/CFS, parasomnias and PLM disorders are not well tested due to low number of subjects in the validation study, and circadian rhythm disorders not covered, 2) since this scale was constructed in 2002, diagnostic categories do not correlate exactly with the latest AASM and DSM-V recommendations, and 3) assessments need further testing in a primary care environment.
References
Roth T, Zammit G, Kushida C, Doghramji K, Mathias SD, Wong JM, Buysse DJ. A new questionnaire to detect sleep disorders. Sleep Med. 2002;3(2):99-108.

 

Document last updated July 2019
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ME/CFS