AbstractLight exposure is an essential
driver of health and well-being, and individual behaviours during rest
and activity modulate physiologically relevant aspects of light
exposure. Further understanding the behaviours that influence individual
photic exposure patterns may provide insight into the volitional
contributions to the physiological effects of light and guide
behavioural points of intervention. Here, we present a novel,
self-reported and psychometrically validated inventory to capture light
exposure-related behaviour, the Light Exposure Behaviour Assessment
(LEBA). An expert panel prepared the initial 48-item pool spanning
different light exposure-related behaviours. Responses, consisting of
rating the frequency of engaging in the per-item behaviour on a
five-point Likert-type scale, were collected in an online survey
yielding responses from a geographically unconstrained sample (690
completed responses, 74 countries, 28 time zones). The exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) on an initial subsample (n = 428) rendered a
five-factor solution with 25 items (wearing blue light filters, spending
time outdoors, using a phone and smartwatch in bed, using light before
bedtime, using light in the morning and during daytime). In a
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) performed on an independent subset of
participants (n = 262), we removed two additional items to attain the
best fit for the five-factor solution (CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA =
0.06). The internal consistency reliability coefficient for the total
instrument yielded McDonald’s Omega = 0.68. Measurement model invariance
analysis between native and non-native English speakers showed our model
attained the highest level of invariance (residual invariance CFI =
0.95, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.05). Lastly, a short form of the LEBA (n =
18 items) was developed using Item Response Theory on the complete
sample (n = 690). The psychometric properties of the LEBA indicate the
usability for measuring light exposure-related behaviours. The
instrument may offer a scalable solution to characterise behaviours that
influence individual photic exposure patterns in remote samples. The
LEBA inventory is available under the open-access CC-BY license.
Instrument
webpage:https://leba-instrument.org/GitHub
repository containing this
manuscript:https://github.com/leba-instrument/leba-manuscript.
