RESUMEN
Background: Few studies have employed the item response theory in examining reliability. We conducted this study to examine the effect of Rating Scale Categories (RSCs) on the reliability and fit statistics of the Malay Spiritual Well-Being Scale, employing the Rasch model. Methods: The Malay Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) with the original six; three and four newly structured RSCs was distributed randomly among three different samples of 50 participants each. Results: The mean age of respondents in the three samples ranged between 36 and 39 years old. The majority was female in all samples, and Islam was the most prevalent religion among the respondents. The predominating race was Malay, followed by Chinese and Indian. The original six RSCs indicated better targeting of 0.99 and smallest model error of 0.24. The Infit Mnsq (mean square) and Zstd (Z standard) of the six RSCs were “1.1”and “-0.1”respectively. The six RSCs achieved the highest person and item reliabilities of 0.86 and 0.85 respectively. These reliabilities yielded the highest person (2.46) and item (2.38) separation indices compared to other the RSCs. Conclusion: The person and item reliability and, to a lesser extent, the fit statistics, were better with the six RSCs compared to the four and three RSCs.
RESUMEN
Objective: The objective of this study is to identify the correlation between psychological factors and insomnia and the impact of insomnia on daytime sleepiness. Methods and Results: The participants were recruited through convenient sampling and consist of 173 working adults in Georgetown, Penang, aged 20 to 60 years. Participants completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The results revealed that the prevalent of insomnia was 34.7%. There was a positive correlation between psychological distress and insomnia r = .481, p < .001 and also a positive correlation between insomnia and daytime sleepiness r = .334, p < .001. Conclusion: It is concluded that psychological distress typically causes sleep difficulties, and sleep deprivation leads to daytime sleepiness.
RESUMEN
Using a questionnaire, a snoring study was done in 400 medical and 78 nursing students of University Malaysia Sarawak in 2004 and 2005. The response rates were 72.5% for medical students and 83.3% for nursing students. The habitual snoring percentages for all years, first year and final year medical students were 7.2, 9.9 and 3.6 respectively; and for all years, first year and third year nursing students were 12.3, 13.3 and 8.3. These figures were lower than those found in Hong Kong and Germany, despite similar body mass index (BMI). In the combined group of student, positive correlation with snoring was found in male gender (p=0.011), BMI (p=0.002) and sleep apnoea (p=0.05). For medical students, positive correlation was found in male gender (p<0.0005), weight (p <0.001), height (p <0.001) and sleep apnoea (p<0.001), and for nursing students in BMI (p=0.008) and weight (p=0.033). No significant correlation was found in snoring with Epworth Sleepiness Scale and academic performance.