Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the reliability of a one-week versus a four-week recall period of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-SS) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM).

METHODS:

The MOS-SS was administered by mail to patients with a confirmed diagnosis of FM and a current pain rating of > 2 (0-10 point numerical rating scale) recruited through newspapers, support groups, and the Internet. Reliability of MOS-SS subscale domains was evaluated using test-retest methodology separated by a 1-3 day interval for the 4-week recall period and a 7-day interval for the 1-week recall period. Patient Impression of Change was evaluated for sleep, and for patients with no change, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for MOS-SS subscales.

RESULTS:

Of 129 patients enrolled, 91.3% were female, mean age was 49.4 +/- 11.0 years; self-rated FM severity was moderate-to-severe in 88.1% of patients. MOS-SS subscale scores were similar for both recall periods with little variation between test-retest. The 9-item Sleep Problems Index scores ranged from 57.2 +/- 14.5 to 61.9 +/- 15.8 across all assessments and demonstrated high reliability which was similar for the 1-week (ICC 0.81) and 4-week (ICC 0.89) recall periods. For the other MOS-SS subscales, the 1-week recall period also showed good reliability, which was consistent for the ICC and Pearson correlation coefficients.

CONCLUSION:

A 1-week recall period is adequately reliable for use of the MOS-SS in studies evaluating sleep disturbance in patients with FM.