HD-16: a new quality of life instrument specifically designed for insomnia.
OBJECTIVE
To design a new quality of life (QoL) instrument specifically for insomnia.


METHODS
Based on severe insomniacs' interviews, we have built a new quality of life scale that has been tested in one group of 240 severe insomniacs, in one group of 422 mild insomniacs and in one group of 391 good sleepers. Ten steps led to the construction of a specific QoL scale.


RESULTS
Five dimensions have been validated as both relevant and independent from each other. Sixteen items out of the 43 initially tested were retained and significantly different within the groups in each dimension. Based on the 16 items selected, we called the scale Hotel Dieu 16 (HD-16). We have therefore verified the score's specificity (correlation score of +0.36) and the reliability of the scale (Cronbach coefficient alpha=0.78).


CONCLUSIONS
HD-16 may be used as a focused instrument to better assess an insomniac's quality of life.
Leger
D
D
Centre du Sommeil, Service de Physiologie, Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, 1 pl. du Parvis Notre Dame, 75181 Paris cedex 04, France. damien.leger@htd.ap-hop-paris.fr
Scheuermaier
K
K
Raffray
T
T
Metlaine
A
A
Choudat
D
D
Guilleminault
C
C
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires