Sleep disorders screening tool/management algorithms for nurses
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Psychometric evaluation of a Sleep Disorders Screening Checklist and development of sleep disorders management algorithms for use in primary/secondary care nursing
IRAS ID
217738
Contact name
Grigorios Kotronoulas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 2 days
Research summary
Sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnoea are very common in the general population as well as the chronically ill. Untreated sleep disorders can lead to reduced psychosocial functioning, work absenteeism and increased or complicated medical and/or psychiatric illness. These can pose considerable burden to care recipients, families, the health system and society. In spite of their high prevalence and known negative impact, sleep disorders may be overlooked by clinicians and underreported by sufferers.
The need to systematically screen for sleep disorders to enable timely, evidence-based sleep management interventions is evident. Nurses working in primary/secondary care can be key health professionals to address this need. This is provided that a validated screening tool is available to them. The Sleep Disorders Screening Checklist-25 (SDS-CL-25) is a brief, self-report questionnaire that screens for six major sleep disorders. Preliminary analyses provided good reliability/validity estimates for the SDS-CL-25, but additional evidence is necessary to establish its psychometric robustness.Quick-and-simple sleep management pathways are also needed to guide nurses in busy clinical settings to offer effective sleep management care in response to screening information from the SDS-CL-25. However, no such pathways currently exist, and sleep management education for nurses is sub-optimal.
This study will comprise two parts that will run in parallel.
In Part 1, we will aim to examine the psychometric properties of the SDS-CL-25, i.e. whether the tool measures what it is supposed to measure, how reliably it does so, and whether it can positively screen people who do have a sleep disorder. This work will helps us establish whether the SDS-CL-25 has good properties that can allow nurses to confidently identify a sleep disorder in people who receive community or hospital care. The study sample will be a convenience sample, comprising individuals with and without sleep disorder diagnoses. Study participants will be either (a) patients referred by general practitioners to Glasgow-based sleep disorders clinics for confirmatory sleep disorder diagnoses (“the sleep clinic sample”), or (b) individuals recruited from the general population (“the community volunteer sample”). A set of brief baseline forms/questionnaires will be used for data collection. Two data collection assessments will take place, a baseline assessment and a follow-up assessment (two weeks after the baseline). A paper-and-pencil survey will be the main means of data collection from the sleep clinic sample. An online survey will be used to collect data from the community volunteer sample.
In Part 2, we will review the relevant guidelines and consult with sleep and nursing experts to develop clinical pathways (algorithms) and an educational booklet that nurses working in primary/secondary care nursing can use to manage sleep disorders identified through the SDS-CL-25.
Our ultimate goal is to create a toolkit (i.e. validated SDS-CL-25, algorithms and educational booklet) for the identification and management of sleep disorders that can be used by registered nurses to tackle this public health issue.
We will be seeking NHS Research Ethics approval for all components of this study.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
17/WS/0023
Date of REC Opinion
20 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion