GESIS Pretest Database: Documentation Questions Details - SHARE Wave 9 – New items on financial decision making, successful ageing, eating habits, sleep, long-term care insurance, and long-term care expectations (English Version)

General Information:

*Note: The item was tested in German. This is an English translation of the original German wording. The translation does not correspond exactly to the wording in the English SHARE source questionnaire.*

Question Text:

Please look at card 7. Has someone close to you, like a partner, a relative or a cargiver, told you that you do any of these things during your sleep?

[Bitte sehen Sie sich Liste 7 an. Hat jemand, der Ihnen nahesteht – etwa ein Partner, ein Verwandter oder eine Pflegekraft – Ihnen gesagt, dass Sie im Schlaf eines dieser Dinge tun?]

Answer Categories:

Snore loudly [Lautes Schnarchen]
Have long pauses between breathes while asleep [Im Schlaf lange Pausen zwischen den Atemzügen haben]
Have legs twitching or jerking while asleep [Zucken oder Schütteln der Beine beim Schlafen]
Have episodes of disorientation or confusion during your sleep [Episoden von Desorientierung oder Verwirrung während des Schlafs haben]
Have other restlessness while asleep, please specify [Andere Unruhe beim Schlafen, bitte angeben]

Recommendations:

Question: To simplify the sentence structure in the German translation of the ques-tion, the word "you" could be placed in front and "or more" added:

"Has anyone close to you - such as a partner, relative or carer - told you that you do one or more of these things in your sleep?" [„Hat Ihnen jemand, der Ihnen nahesteht – etwa ein Partner, ein Verwandter oder eine Pflegekraft – gesagt, dass Sie im Schlaf eines oder mehrere dieser Dinge tun?“]

Response Options: For the answer option "Take long pauses between breaths while sleeping" [„Lange Pausen zwischen Atemzügen während des Schlafens machen“], we recommend adding an article ("den") before "breaths" [“Atemzüge”] in the German translation.

Cognitive Techniques:

Specific Probing

Findings for Question:

1. Do the respondents have difficulties understanding and/or answering the question?

Seven of the ten test persons stated that they did one or more of the mentioned things in their sleep, while three test persons answered the question in the negative (TP 03, 09, 10).

Two subjects (TP 02, 06) pointed out problems in understanding or answering the question.

Test person 02 first stated that no one had told her that she did any of the above things in her sleep. In the course of the interview, she then said that although she snored and a doctor certified that she did so after a sleep test, she did not snore "loudly". Spontaneously she would therefore not have chosen any of the things mentioned: "No, actually not. [...] Well, I know that I, like many people, snore, but not out loud, I know that. So I don't snore loudly, but I know that I snore because I took a sleep test like years ago. And then the doctor said that I had a very quiet snore, a very slight handicap in my nose. But that would be so small. And my husband says, that's not true at all, I don't snore; maybe he's nice [laughs].” In this case, it was unclear to the interviewer whether she should note down the answer "loud snoring" or whether the focus of the question was on the "loud". In the end she decided to record “snore loudly” for the test person.

Test person 06 pointed out that the answer option "to have phases of disorientation or confusion during sleep" was not correctly formulated, since such phases cannot be experienced during sleep, but only after waking up: "So legally speaking, sleep is like unconsciousness. You are not liable to prosecution during sleep. So, how is that possible? It's only possible when you wake up."

2. Do the respondents understand that the question is about the symptoms pointed out by someone else rather than realizing the symptoms themselves?

All test persons interpreted the question to mean whether someone else had told them that they did one or more of the things mentioned in their sleep.

3. Who is pointing this out to the respondents?

The test persons mainly named partners (TP 06, 07, 08), family members (TP 01, 04), friends (TP 05) or even doctors (TP 02) as persons who had told them that they did one or more of these things in their sleep.

4. How often do the respondents do those things: once or regularly?

Of the seven subjects who do one or more of these things in their sleep, three stated that they did not know how often they did them (TP 01, 02, 03). Four subjects stated that they did these things regularly or very often (TP 05, 06, 07, 08):

"I cannot say. Well, it was, I mean, it was not that often. But I can't answer it." (TP 02)
"I don't know. That I notice it myself is very rare. That I wake up thinking, 'Oh, my God, I snored so loud I woke up.” (TP 04)
"Very often, actually, every night. At least for the last four weeks, when she [the girlfriend] could attest to it." (TP 05)
"It's harder to answer, but probably every night." (TP 08)

5. Is the list complete?

Three respondents mentioned other types of anxiety that are not listed in the response options. These were teeth grinding (TP 01), screaming during a nightmare (TP 02: "When I have nightmares, I know I'm screaming. This again was said by my partner. Well, I woke him up once before because I was screaming because of a nightmare." ) and singing (TP 05).

Question Topic:

Public health/ Health impairments

Construct:

Sleep-related issues reported by others