Programs Manager Indiana University School of Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Background: Many infants are enrolled in childcare where state law requires safe sleep defined by either AAP or state recommendations. There is an 18 times greater risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when infants, who are accustomed to being placed to sleep supine are placed to sleep in a prone position. Although childcares are required to follow safe sleep guidelines, little is known about how these babies sleep at home.
Objective: To describe the knowledge and behaviors of home sleep environment of infants attending childcare.
Design/Methods: A convenience sample of parents of infants attending childcare in zip codes with high rates of infant mortality completed a self-administered, anonymous survey. Childcares varied by type and quality rating (level 1 meeting basic health/safety guidelines -level 4 nationally accredited). Measures of knowledge and behaviors were adapted from Cribs For Kidsâ Safe Sleep Ambassador questionnaire and the Assessment of Safe Sleep: Validation of the Parent Newborn Sleep Safety Survey. Demographics included race, ethnicity, education, and marital status. Data was entered into REDCap to conduct an aggregate analysis and then sorted by race. Records with missing data, infants not yet born, and infants older than 12 months were excluded.
Results: 108 surveys from 17 childcares (24% ministries, 29% centers, 47% home-based; 75% of ministries, 60% of centers and 50% of home-based programs met high quality levels 3 or 4.
Tables below. Conclusion(s): Due to infants sleeping safely while in childcare, they are at a higher risk of SIDS when placed in unaccustomed sleep position in other locations. Childcares should encourage families to mirror safe sleep environment at home. The safe sleep message and access to resources needs to continue to be available to families within their built environments.
Demographics
All responses
Responses By Race
Authors/Institutions: Whitley N. Wynns, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Jennifer Stanton-Tully, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Kathleen E. Lynch, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Marlee J. Case, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Kara M. Casavan, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Nancy Swigonski, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapoolis, Indiana, United States