title: Validation of the Insomnia in the Elderly Scale for the detection of insomnia in older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main objective of this study was the validation of a brief support instrument for the diagnosis of insomnia in older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational study was carried out for the evaluation of the Insomnia in the Elderly Scale using the psychiatric interview as the gold standard. Data was collected in a primary care setting in the city of Albacete, Spain. Participants were 926 non-institutionalized older adults aged ≥ 65 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sleep characteristics, and the health and sociodemographic status of the participants were assessed. The Insomnia in the Elderly Scale is divided into two subscales for the evaluation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fouth Edition criteria A and B for insomnia. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for subscale A was 0.868. The cut-off point to detect the presence of diagnostic criterion A for insomnia was a score of ≥ 3 (sensitivity: 86.4%; specificity: 69.5%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for subscale B was 0.832. The cut-off point to detect the presence of diagnostic criterion B was a score of ≥ 2 (sensitivity: 86.3%; specificity: 66.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Insomnia in the Elderly Scale has appropriate psychometric properties. This scale compensates for the lack of validated instruments for use in the population aged 65 years or older. The fact that it is divided into two subscales to separately evaluate the insomnia criteria enables us to detect the presence of each of them. Finally, it has been validated in participants aged 65 years and older, which is the target population for this scale.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit, Primary Care Head Office of Albacete, Health and Social Care Foundation of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain. bnavarrob@sescam.jccm.es
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: López-Torres
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andrés
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Latorre
authors.forename: María Jesús
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Montes
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Párraga
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires