Validation of the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children and prevalence of parent-reported sleep disorder symptoms in Chinese children

•SDSC is reliable and useful in screening for sleep disorders in Chinese children.•The prevalence of parents’ reported sleep disorders among Chinese children was 4.43%.•The prevalence of parents’ reported sleep disorders in boys was positively higher than that in girls.

ObjectiveTo translate and validate the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC), a promising questionnaire for use among children in epidemiological studies, in Chinese children.MethodsIn total, 3525 children aged 5–16 years were randomly selected from five primary schools in Shenyang. Internal consistency, reliability and factor analyses were undertaken to assess the construct validity of the SDSC.ResultsInternal consistency indicated adequate reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.81). Factor analytic results indicated a six-factor solution (ie, six types of sleep disorder) based on parent-reported sleep disorder symptoms. The mean total score of the SDSC was 39.28 ± 7.83 and 156 (4.43%) children were identified as suffering from parent-reported sleep disorder. The prevalence for each sleep type disorder ranged from 3.46% to 6.30% with the highest for sleep hyperhidrosis (SHY) and the lowest for disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep. Significant differences were found between boys and girls in the prevalence of sleep breathing disorders (6.51% vs 3.72%), SHY (8.62% vs 4.00%) and parent-reported sleep disorders (5.19% vs 3.67%).ConclusionsThe SDSC is reliable and useful in screening for parent-reported sleep disorders in Chinese children. Compared with other countries, parent-reported sleep disorders among Chinese elementary school children were at a relatively low level of prevalence.