Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, Japan.
J Epidemiol. 2010;20(2):143-9. doi: 10.2188/jea.je20090054. Epub 2010 Feb 6.
Sleep pattern is an important factor in a child's mental, behavioural and physical status. To evaluate the sleep patterns of children, subjective tools such as sleep logs and questionnaires are still widely used in addition to objective methods of sleep assessment. Despite the established correlation between subjective and objective sleep variables, the characteristic features of subjective assessment have not been elucidated.
To investigate the characteristics of parental sleep assessment (daily sleep log and brief questionnaire) in preschool children, a 7-day actigraphic sleep study was conducted in 48 healthy 5-year-old children.
Sleep schedule variables in the parental reports generally correlated well with actigraphic assessment of sleep patterns; however, sleep periods were longer in parental reports than in actigraphic recordings. Although the daily sleep log was better correlated with actigraphy, the brief questionnaire showed a good correlation with sleep pattern on weekday actigraphic assessments. Parental reports recorded fewer than 10% of the night wakings recorded by actigraphy.
Subjective sleep assessments remain useful, although their utility depends on the purpose and size of the study in question. However, knowledge of the potential biases and characteristics of such assessments is essential for correct interpretation of the data.
睡眠模式是儿童心理、行为和身体状况的重要因素。除了客观的睡眠评估方法外，睡眠日志和问卷等主观工具仍被广泛用于评估儿童的睡眠模式。尽管主观和客观睡眠变量之间存在已确立的相关性，但主观评估的特征尚未阐明。
为了研究学龄前儿童父母睡眠评估（每日睡眠日志和简短问卷）的特征，对 48 名健康 5 岁儿童进行了为期 7 天的活动记录仪睡眠研究。
父母报告中的睡眠时间表变量通常与活动记录仪评估的睡眠模式相关性良好；然而，父母报告中的睡眠时间比活动记录仪记录的睡眠时间长。虽然每日睡眠日志与活动记录仪的相关性更好，但简短问卷在工作日活动记录仪评估中与睡眠模式的相关性也很好。父母报告记录的夜间觉醒次数不到活动记录仪记录的 10%。
尽管主观睡眠评估仍然有用，但它们的效用取决于具体研究的目的和规模。然而，了解此类评估的潜在偏差和特征对于正确解释数据至关重要。
