Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 31:16:174.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-0876-8.

Validation of the German version of the insomnia severity index in adolescents, young adults and adult workers: results from three cross-sectional studies

Markus Gerber  1 , Christin Lang  2 , Sakari Lemola  3 , Flora Colledge  2 , Nadeem Kalak  4 , Edith Holsboer-Trachsler  4 , Uwe Pühse  2 , Serge Brand  2   4
Affiliations

Validation of the German version of the insomnia severity index in adolescents, young adults and adult workers: results from three cross-sectional studies

Markus Gerber et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: A variety of objective and subjective methods exist to assess insomnia. The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) was developed to provide a brief self-report instrument useful to assess people's perception of sleep complaints. The ISI was developed in English, and has been translated into several languages including German. Surprisingly, the psychometric properties of the German version have not been evaluated, although the ISI is often used with German-speaking populations.

Methods: The psychometric properties of the ISI are tested in three independent samples: 1475 adolescents, 862 university students, and 533 police and emergency response service officers. In all three studies, participants provide information about insomnia (ISI), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), and psychological functioning (diverse instruments). Descriptive statistics, gender differences, homogeneity and internal consistency, convergent validity, and factorial validity (including measurement invariance across genders) are examined in each sample.

Results: The findings show that the German version of the ISI has generally acceptable psychometric properties and sufficient concurrent validity. Confirmatory factor analyses show that a 1-factor solution achieves good model fit. Furthermore, measurement invariance across gender is supported in all three samples.

Conclusions: While the ISI has been widely used in German-speaking countries, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence that the German version of this instrument has good psychometric properties and satisfactory convergent and factorial validity across various age groups and both men and women. Thus, the German version of the ISI can be recommended as a brief screening measure in German-speaking populations.

Keywords: German; Insomnia; Measurement invariance; Psychological functioning; Sleep; Validation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Factor Loadings For Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Males (First Coefficient) and Females (Second Coefficient), Separately for Study 1, 2 and 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Roth T. Insomnia: Defintion, prevalence, etiology, and consequences. J Clin Sleep Med. 2007;15:S7–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ohayon MM, Paiva T. Global sleep dissatisfaction for the assessment of insomnia severity in the general population of Portugal. Sleep Med. 2005;6:435–41. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2005.03.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Buysse DJ, Angst J, Gamma A, Ajdacic V, Eich D, Rossler W. Prevalence, course, and comorbidity of insomnia and depression in young adults. Sleep. 2008;31:473–80. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Banks S, Dinges DF. Behavioral and physiological consequences of sleep restriction. J Clin Sleep Med. 2007;3:519–28. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stickgold R. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Nature. 2005;437:1272–8. doi: 10.1038/nature04286. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types