Abstract
Study Objectives: Visual analog scales (VAS) and diary cards are used to measure changes in patients' sleep quality in clinical trials and practice. In this study we compared the 2 methods for assessing changes in sleep quality in patients with insomnia.
Methods: A VAS method of assessing sleep quality (QOS-means of questions 4 and 5 in the Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire) was compared with a standard categorical five-grade scale (5GS) in a single blind clinical trial involving 394 treated patients with insomnia aged 55 years and older who received placebo for 2 weeks, prolonged release melatonin 2 mg for 3 weeks and then placebo for 2 weeks for improvement of quality of sleep.
Results: Changes in VAS and 5GS scores were concordant and highly correlated. In patients with severely impaired sleep at baseline the 5GS showed a slightly greater sensitivity than the VAS when reporting a change whereas the contrary was found for patients with minimally impaired sleep.
Conclusion: The 5GS is comparable to VAS in capturing changes in sleep quality. The sensitivity of the two methods appeared similar with some advantage for the 5GS in patients with more severe basline pathology.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Sleep and Sleep Disorders |
| Subtitle of host publication | A Neuropsychopharmacological Approach |
| Publisher | Springer US |
| Pages | 220-224 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780387276823 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0387276815, 9780387276816 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |