Whole-body thermal therapies for symptom management and well-being in people assigned female at birth with chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhoea, endometriosis or adenomyosis: a scoping review protocol.

Sleep is a key determinant of health and well-being. Approximately 16% of the global population is affected by poor sleep quality [], which is an emerging public health issue due to its association with increased risk of non-communicable disease (NCD) [, ], mental health conditions [] and adverse socioeconomic outcomes []. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), poor sleep disproportionately affects low socioeconomic status (SES) groups, particularly women who encounter various vulnerabilities such as low income, informal or insecure employment, high caregiving demands, food insecurity, and exposure to gender-based violence and chronic stress []. Reliable sleep quality measures are thus essential across diverse populations. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a commonly used self-report instrument that assesses sleep quality over a one-month interval []. It comprises 19 items grouped into seven components (subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction) and is rated from 0 to 3. Components are combined to produce a global score ranging from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating poorer quality sleep. Research guided by the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) standards [] shows acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s  = 0.70–0.83) across clinical and non-clinical populations [] and strong test–retest reliability ( ≈ 0.87) over short intervals [], however, estimates may vary by study design and retest duration []. Additionally, the PSQI demonstrates good content validity, based on domain coverage [], construct validity, through moderate correlations with related constructs (i.e., anxiety and depression) and weak associations with unrelated variables [, –], as well as criterion validity due to its ability to distinguish disordered from healthy sleep [] and its associations with other self-reported measures, such as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) [].