Examining the psychometric properties of the brief ‘Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale’

Aims and objectives To examine the psychometric properties of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale. Background Sleep disturbances are an extensive and common problem among menopausal women. However, no unique and specific scale has yet been developed to detect the inductive symptoms distresses that cause poor sleep quality for menopausal women. Design A cross‐sectional design. Methods The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale was based on in‐depth interviews with menopausal women and literature review. Convenience sampling was employed. One hundred and fifty three women participated in this study. Exploratory factor analysis, concurrent validity and contrasting group validity were used to examine the validity of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale. Cronbach's α was conducted to test the reliability. The accuracy of the scale was analysed with the receiver operating characteristic from med calc version 10.4.8.0 software. The scale's sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value were analysed to locate the best cut‐off point. Results One factor was generated by Exploratory factor analysis, and this factor explained 49·07% of total variance. In addition, the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale had significant positive correlations with the Greene Climacteric Scale and the self‐evaluation of menopausal symptoms scale. Cronbach's α of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale was 0·89. Moreover, the diagnostic accuracy probability of the scale's receiver operating characteristic curve was 0·85. The best cut‐off point was three with a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 87%. Conclusions The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale had good reliability and validity, as well as refined indicators for assessing the tool's accuracy. Relevance to clinical Practice The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale is easy to use, can quickly detect the sleep conditions of menopausal women who suffer from menopausal symptom distress, and provide efficient nursing interventions to relieve menopausal symptom distresses, and then improve sleep quality.