Pediatric sleep questionnaires as diagnostic or epidemiological tools: a review of currently available instruments.

An extensive list of published and unpublished instruments used to investigate or evaluate sleep issues in children was collected and assessed based on the fundamental operational principles of instrument development (11 steps). Of all the available tools identified, only a few were validated and standardized using appropriate psychometric criteria. In fact, only 2 fulfill all desirable criteria and approximately 11 instruments seem to adhere to most of the psychometric tool development requirements, and were therefore assessed in greater detail. Notwithstanding, in the rapidly developing scientific world of pediatric sleep, there are too many tools being used that have not undergone careful and methodical psychometric evaluation, and as such may be fraught with biased or invalid findings. It is hoped that this initial effort in categorizing and assessing available tools for pediatric sleep will serve as recognition of the relatively early developmental stage of our field, and provide the necessary impetus for future tool development using multicentered approaches and adequate methodologies.