0771 THE NATIONAL SLEEP FOUNDATION’S SLEEP HEALTH INDEX

Abstract Introduction: Sleep health is essential for overall health and well-being. Therefore, a validated subjective assessment of sleep health would be an important research tool, particularly when objective measures of sleep are not feasible. As such, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) spearheaded the development of the Sleep Health Index® (SHI). Methods: The development of the SHI involved a task force of sleep experts who identified key sleep domains. From an extensive list of items they provided, an initial draft of survey questions was created and questions were further refined using cognitive testing and pretesting. The resulting 28-question survey was administered via random-sample phone interviews to a nationally representative sample of adults in 2014 (n=1253) and 2015 (n=1250). These two surveys were combined to create the index. A factor analysis linked 14 questions to three discrete domains: sleep quality, sleep duration and disordered sleep. These were assembled as sub-indices, then combined to form the overall SHI with scores ranging from 0 to 100 (higher score reflects better sleep health). Results: Americans earned an SHI score equivalent to a C grade (score 76), with sub-index scores of B- (score 81) in disordered sleep, C+ (score 79) in sleep duration and D+ (score 68) in sleep quality. In regression analyses, the strongest independent predictors of sleep health were self-reported stress (β=-0.26) and overall health (β=0.26), which were also the strongest predictors of sleep quality (β=-0.32, β=0.27 respectively). The 2014 and 2015 surveys produced virtually identical results. Conclusion: The current 14-item SHI is a valid, reliable research tool that robustly measures the sleep health status of adults in the U.S. Given its inclusion of three separate but related elements of sleep health - duration, disorders and quality - SHI provides the information that is too often lacking in the determination of one’s general health: sleep health. Support (If Any): The Sleep Health Index® is funded and supported by the National Sleep Foundation.