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CC BY 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83(02): s00451804921
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1804921
Original Article

Psychometric properties of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale in Brazilian medical students

Renato Canevari Dutra da Silva 
1   Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, São Leopoldo RS, Brazil.
2   Universidade do Rio Verde, Rio Verde GO, Brazil.
,
Anderson Garcez 
3   Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas: Endocrinologia, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
4   Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Nutrição, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
,
Adriana Vieira Macedo Brugnoli 
1   Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, São Leopoldo RS, Brazil.
2   Universidade do Rio Verde, Rio Verde GO, Brazil.
,
Marcos Pascoal Pattussi 
1   Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, São Leopoldo RS, Brazil.
,
Maria Teresa Anselmo Olinto 
3   Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas: Endocrinologia, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
5   Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Alimentação, Nutrição e Saúde, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
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Financial Support MTO received research productivity grants from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (process nos. 307175/2017-0 and 303977/2022-1). AG received a postdoctoral fellowship from CNPq (process no. 102282/2024-2).
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Abstract

Background Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) refers to the propensity to become drowsy or fall asleep when the intention and expectation would be to stay awake, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is an easy-to-apply instrument that can be used to assess the presence of EDS.

Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties of the ESS, including its construct validity and internal consistency, in a population of university students.

Methods Two samples of 400 students from the medicine program of a university located in the Midwest of Brazil were randomly selected from a cross-sectional academic study conducted in 2018. Construct validity was examined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the eight items of the ESS, and the internal consistency was evaluated using the Cronbach's α coefficient (α).

Results It was found that factor analyses revealed better adjustment measures when considering the ESS to be two-dimensional, grouped into two main factors: the first factor referring to the evaluation of sleepiness at rest, and the second referring to drowsiness in activity (standardized root mean square residual [SRMR] = 0.053; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.095; Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.937; and Tucker-Lewis Index [TLI] = 0.908; p < 0.05). Moreover, the ESS presented an adequate internal consistency (α = 0.75).

Conclusion The present study showed general psychometric properties adequate for the ESS in medical students, including an acceptable construct validity and internal consistency. Thus, the ESS may be suitable to assess EDS in university students, especially medical students.

Keywords

Disorders of Excessive Somnolence - Sleepiness - Epworth Sleepiness Scale - Students, Medical

Authors' Contributions

RCDS, AG, AVMB, MPP, and MTAO: conceptualization; RCDS, MPP, and MTAO: formal analysis; MPP: project administration; RCDS and MTAO: writing – original draft; and RCDS, AG, AVMB, MPP, and MTAO: writing – review & editing.


Editor-in-Chief: Hélio A. G. Teive.


Associate Editor: Fernando Morgadinho Coelho.




Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 10. Juli 2024

Angenommen: 01. Dezember 2024

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
19. März 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Bibliographical Record
Renato Canevari Dutra da Silva, Anderson Garcez, Adriana Vieira Macedo Brugnoli, Marcos Pascoal Pattussi, Maria Teresa Anselmo Olinto. Psychometric properties of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale in Brazilian medical students. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83: s00451804921.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1804921