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The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)

Assess patients’ sleep quality, patterns, and disturbances over a one-month time period to help inform interventions for sleep disorders

 

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Benefits for Healthcare Providers

Get comprehensive insights into patients’ sleep patterns today and over time with Creyos Health.

One Platform

Cognitive and Behavioral Health in One View

Providers can administer the PSQI alongside other behavioral health questionnaires and measures of mental health and cognition—all from the same platform.

Access to Care

Increase Access to Care

The PSQI can be used by many types of providers to improve a patient’s access to care and uncover links between sleep and various underlying health conditions.

back by science

Inform Patient Care with Robust Science

The PSQI is a standardized tool for gaining trackable insights into patient sleep and is supported by our commitment to scientific validity and research.

Discover the Relationship Between Sleep and Cognitive Health

Learn more about the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and how it can be used alongside measures of cognitive functioning in Creyos Health to provide a better understanding of overall patient well being.

Review our guide below for a complete list of standardized questionnaires available in Creyos.

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Sleep and Cognition

Preview the Creyos PSQI Sample Report

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index offered through Creyos is a 19-question self-assessment that measures a patient’s sleep patterns in a one-month time frame. 

When administered alongside measures of cognitive performance, it allows clinicians to:

  • A standardized, reliable, and valuable tool for sleep quality measurement
  • Automated scoring and reporting for easy administration
  • Insight into overall patient well being over time

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PSQI Report

How to Use the PSQI

Step 1: Help Patient Prepare

Before beginning the questionnaire, providers should explain the role of sleep in mental, physical, emotional, and cognitive health. The purpose of the PSQI is to uncover connections between sleep quality and overall health.

Step 2: Administer Questionnaire

Patients can complete the PSQI in person through the Creyos Health platform on an in-clinic device or at home through a provided link. In a series of 19 questions, the questionnaire asks patients to evaluate various aspects of sleep over a one-month time interval. The last 5 items are answered by a bed-mate or someone living in the patient’s space and are not included in the global score.

Step 3: Review Results

Creyos Health automatically scores the patient’s results and provides a comprehensive report. Lower scores indicate poorer sleep quality while higher scores indicate better sleep quality.

Step 4: Discuss, Plan, and Reassess

Healthcare providers can discuss results with patients, explain their sleep quality scores in relation to other conditions, and plan for follow-up assessments to track meaningful change over time.

How to Use PSQI

Up to 70% of People with Mental Health Disorders Experience Sleep Disturbances

A study of 1,874 patients with 13 types of mental health disorders used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index to measure sleep quality against a control group of 15,117 people without mental disorders. Between 19.30% to 69.92% of patients with mental health conditions reported significant sleep disturbances, compared to only 5.55% in the control group. This suggests that using the PSQI can help providers understand the relationship between sleep quality and mental health, and develop targeted interventions to improve both.

Learn how administering the PSQI, additional behavioral health questionnaires, and cognitive functioning tasks in Creyos Health can help improve patient outcomes.

Source: Lijun C., Ke-Qing L., et al. (2012)

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Simplify Patient Sleep, Cognitive, and Mental Health Management

Administer the PSQI, digitized behavioral health questionnaires, and online cognitive tasks—all in one platform.

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Frequently asked questions

Where did the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index come from?

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was developed by Buysse et al. in 1988 to measure sleep quality and disturbances over a one-month time interval.

Who uses the PSQI?

The PSQI is commonly used by healthcare professionals, sleep clinics and specialists, organizations, researchers, and individuals to assess and measure sleep quality in patients ages 19 to 83 years.

How is the PSQI scored?

The 19 questions included in the PSQI assess seven sleep components that are scored independently to yield one overall score on a scale of 0 to 21. Lower scores indicate that an individual is a poor sleeper while higher scores are associated with better sleep quality.

How does administration and scoring of the PSQI work in Creyos?

Administration is flexible and efficient; questionnaires can be administered by a health provider or technician, either in-clinic or emailed to the patient to be completed remotely. This flexibility allows providers to maximize their appointment time with patients, and reduce time spent on scoring or recording session notes.

When a patient completes the PSQI questionnaire, providers get immediate insights through easy-to-read reports that combine questionnaire data with cognitive test results for a full picture of patient brain health. Creyos can also use APIs to integrate with a variety of electronic health systems (EHR) and has a built-in integration with athenahealth. Our platform automatically collects, scores, and organizes results from each questionnaire and adds them to the patient’s EHR.

What symptoms does the PSQI evaluate?

The PSQI consists of 19 items that are grouped into 7 components, including: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication, and daytime dysfunction.


How can the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index support patients?

The PSQI should be used as a screening tool to assist primary care providers or other health professionals in understanding sleep quality and monitoring symptom severity over time. 

Any conclusions drawn from the PSQI should be paired with further assessment, such as clinical interviews and observations, additional mental health examinations or assessments, and evaluations of the patient’s level of distress, functional impairment, and/or family history.

What can the PSQI not do?

Scores on the PSQI questionnaire do not suggest a particular diagnosis or course of treatment, but are meant as an aid to quantify a patient’s sleep quality in a one-month time period and measure improvement over time.

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