Correlation of the Thai Richards–Campbell Sleep Questionnaire and actigraphy with polysomnography for sleep assessment in ICU patients

Polysomnography (PSG) is considered as the gold-standard tool for sleep measurement. Other simpler instruments such as actigraphy and the Richards–Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ), have been used as alternatives. The aim of the study was to evaluate correlations of parameters derived from PSG, actigraphy and the Thai version of the RCSQ (T-RCSQ) among patients in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). This single-center study was conducted in a tertiary-care, university-based hospital. Adult patients admitted to the SICU for at least 1 night were enrolled. Actigraphy and PSG were recorded from 8 PM to 6 AM, and patients and bedside nurses independently completed the T-RCSQ the following morning. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationships of sleep efficiency assessed by PSG and by actigraphy, nurse- reported and patient-reported T-RCSQ. Fifty-five patients were enrolled in the study. Their mean age was 64.8 ± 16.3 years, 28 (51%) were men, and 16 (29%) received invasive mechanical ventilation. The correlations of sleep efficiency assessed by PSG and by actigraphy, the nurse-reported and the patient-reported T-RCSQ were 0.173 (95% CI -0.110 to 0.431), 0.334 (95% CI 0.075 to 0.550), and 0.274 (95% CI 0.009 to 0.503). The patient-reported RCSQ and the nurse-reported T-RCSQ showed moderate to high correlations across all 5 items and for derived sleep efficiency. These results support the feasibility of T-RCSQ for bedside screening and trend monitoring, but they do not support substituting actigraphy or T-RCSQ for PSG when precise physiologic quantification is required. Trial registration: Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04417556 registration date 03/06/2020).