Reliability and factorial analysis of the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes Scale About Sleep in Mexican population.

Abstract

The behaviors and thoughts that individuals have about sleep have an influence on the persistence or improvement of insomnia. The Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep Scale (DBAS) was developed with the aim to measure them. To assess the reliability and factorial composition of the Spanish version of the 16-item DBAS. A cross-sectional design of two independent samples was used: one group with insomnia and a control group without it. We estimated the DBAS internal consistency coefficient and compared scores between groups; we also performed an exploratory factorial analysis of the scale. 166 patients with insomnia and 115 control individuals filled-out the DBAS. The scale showed a satisfactory reliability coefficient (with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85) and we found it was composed by three factors which explained 49.2% of the variance. Insomnia patients had significantly higher scores on the total DBAS score and in each one of the 3 factors. The Spanish version of the 16-item DBAS is a reliable instrument to measure several behaviors and beliefs about sleep in insomnia patients.