Test-retest reliability of the Arabic version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

This study aimed to assess the test-retest reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (A-PSQI), a 19-item sleep evaluation tool, in a population of medical students and interns in Saudi Arabia. Following a 16-person pilot study, 202 participants completed 2 A-PSQI questionnaires with a 2-week test-retest interval to avoid a carryover effect. Statistical analysis using RStudio included Cronbach alpha, Spearman rank correlation, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The ICC results showed moderate to strong correlations in most PSQI components. The “Sleep efficiency” component had the lowest ICC (0.460), while “Sleep latency” had the highest (0.730). Overall, the PSQI reliability score is 0.694. Gender (sex assigned at birth) and academic level had no significant impact on the PSQI scores. The sleep quality categories (poor quality, good quality, and acute sleep disturbance) remained stable over time. The A-PSQI demonstrates varying internal consistency across components, with some displaying lower reliability. Nevertheless, it exhibits moderate to strong reliability, and the study confirms the stability of sleep quality categories over time among medical students and interns. This serves as a final validation step to set the stage for large-scale research in the region. This pioneering study is the first test-retest reliability investigation of the A-PSQI, addressing a critical gap in sleep assessment tools tailored to clinical practices in Arabic-speaking communities. It follows the pathway set by previous studies and serves to validate the A-PSQI in this demographic, providing a vital foundation for more catered sleep medicine in the region, targeting better reach to overlooked monolinguals. These findings advance our understanding of sleep quality among medical trainees and contribute to the development of culturally relevant sleep assessment tools.