Comparison of Self-Report Sleep Measures for Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis and Spinal Cord Injury

To investigate self-report measures of sleep disturbances and sleep-related impairments in samples of individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) or spinal cord injury (SCI).Cross-sectional survey.Community based.Adults (age ≥18y) (N=700) with either MS (n=461) or SCI (n=239) who were enrolled in a longitudinal survey of self-reported health outcomes and who completed self-report sleep measures at 1 time point.None.Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-S), Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) sleep disturbance short form, and PROMIS sleep-related impairments short form.Mean scores on the MOS-S sleep index II were significantly worse for both the MS and SCI samples than those of previously reported samples representative of the U.S. general population (P.0001 for each group). The PROMIS sleep disturbance short form and PROMIS sleep-related impairments short form scores of the MS sample were also significantly different from those reported for the calibration cohort (P.0001 on each scale). However, although the scores of the SCI sample were significantly different from those of the comparison cohort for the PROMIS sleep-related impairments short form (P=.045), the differences on the PROMIS sleep disturbance short form were not significant (P=.069).Although the MOS-S scores for the MS and SCI cohorts clearly indicated significantly high levels of sleep-related problems and were consistent with existing literature, the more ambiguous findings from the PROMIS sleep disturbance short form and PROMIS sleep-related impairments short form suggest that not enough is currently known about how these instruments function when applied to those with chronic neurologic dysfunction.