PEACE: Development and Validation of a Brief Five-Item Sleep Quality Scale for Community and Primary Care

Background and Objectives: Poor sleep is common in community and primary-care settings, yet very brief sleep measures suitable for routine use remain limited. We developed and evaluated the five-item Promoting Evaluation and Awareness of Comfort in Sleep (PEACE) scale and examined its associations with well-being and fatigue. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional, clinician-mediated online survey, 312 community-dwelling adults in Italy who were not receiving active treatment for major diseases completed PEACE, the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and a short fatigue questionnaire. The sample was stratified and split into exploratory and confirmatory subsamples for factor analyses. Results: Factor analyses supported the use of a single total score and showed acceptable reliability. Results were broadly similar in women and men, with no evidence of item-level bias, although some model-comparison indices were mixed. Higher PEACE scores were associated with better well-being and lower fatigue. Adding PEACE to a model predicting well-being from body mass index and sex increased explained variance from 4.0% to 11.5%. Conclusions: PEACE is a brief sleep-quality measure with promising initial psychometric properties. In this sample, it was associated with well-being and fatigue and may add information beyond body mass index and sex in community and primary-care settings.