Research Article Shortening of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Survey Using Factor Analysis Oluremi A. Famodu, 1 Makenzie L. Barr, 1 Ida Holásková, 2 Wenjun Zhou, 3 Jesse S. Morrell, 4 Sarah E. Colby, 5 and Melissa D. Olfert 1 1 Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA 2 Ofce of Statistics, West Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station, West Virginia University, 4100 Agricultural Sciences Building, P.O. Box 6108, Morgantown, WV 26506-6108, USA 3 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 916 Volunteer Boulevard, UT SMC 247, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA 4 University of New Hampshire, Kendall Hall, Room 115, 129 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824, USA 5 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1215 W. Cumberland Avenue, 229 Jessie Harris Building, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Melissa D. Olfert; melissa.olfert@mail.wvu.edu Received 16 November 2017; Accepted 6 March 2018; Published 15 April 2018 Academic Editor: Michel M. Billiard Copyright © 2018 Oluremi A. Famodu et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective/Introduction. Lengthy surveys have the potential to burden users and can lead to inaccuracies. Conducting analyses to shorten existing validated surveys is benefcial. Te objective, therefore, was to shorten the Pittsburgh Quality Sleep Index (PSQI) for young adults. Methods. PSQI data from 1246 college students were used. An exploratory factor analysis (FA) was utilized to shorten survey afer dropping select items. Nonparametric correlation analysis (Spearman’s rho) was conducted between the global sleep scores of the shortened and original surveys. Agreements tests (Kappa and McNemar’s test) measured the agreement of the surveys and sensitivity and specifcity were evaluated. Results. Six factors were examined using maximum likelihood factoring method, applying squared multiple correlations with Promax rotation to allow for correlated variables. FA with six factors explained 100% of shared variance based on eigenvalues and accounted for 61% of variability based on variables. Te FA resulted in 13 selected questions (“shortPSQI”), corresponding to 5 of the 7 components of the original survey. High correlation was found between the global scores of the original survey and the “shortPSQI” (rho = 0.94,  < 0.001). When the global score was converted to the categorical variable of good or poor sleepers, the agreement test indicated strong agreement (Kappa 0.83, 95% CI 0.79–0.86,  < 0.0001). Conclusion. Te validated, 19-item PSQI survey was shortened to 13 items. Tests of correlation and agreement indicate the “shortPSQI” may be an acceptable alternative to the original survey for young adults. Clinical Trial Registration. Data for this study was taken from the Get Fruved study, registered on October 21, 2016, on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02941497). 1. Introduction Research conducted in higher education institutions ofen relies on survey data to gather indicators of health (e.g., health behavior, health knowledge, and health practices). However, response burden is one potential issue that limits the amount and accuracy of data collected from survey distribution. Factors associated with response burden are questionnaire length, cognitive ability to complete the survey, and type of questionnaire interface [1]. In particular, lengthy surveys result in fewer respondents starting or completing questionnaires [2] and diferences in processing questions near the end, which can lead to omitted information [3] and/or inconsistent answers [4]. Given the need to maintain high quality research, investigators have begun to explore ways to decrease response burden, including reducing the number of items in existing questionnaires [5]. Some studies take a smaller subset of questions from validated surveys with the intention of reducing response burden [6]. However, these truncated surveys must be revalidated before being used in research. Hindawi Sleep Disorders Volume 2018, Article ID 9643937, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9643937