0952 Parent-Child Perceptions About Healthy Sleep Promotion in a Mobile Health Sleep Extension Intervention

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Over half of school-aged children sleep insufficiently and sleep promoting interventions are urgently needed. To effectively promote pediatric sleep health, it is critical to obtain feedback from youth and their families about acceptable intervention strategies. This qualitative study examined perceptions about healthy sleep promotion in parent-child dyads participating in a mobile health sleep extension intervention. Methods A total of 26 parent-child dyads (child mean age 11 years, SD = 0.67; 46% non-Latinx White; 19% Black) participated in a mobile intervention to extend child sleep duration over 11 weeks (2-week baseline; 7-week intervention; 2-week follow-up). Participants wore a FitBit during the study, were provided with a sleep duration goal, and received general sleep health-promoting electronic messages using the University of Pennsylvania’s Way to Health platform. Following the intervention, parents and their children separately completed a semi-structured telephone interview to capture perceptions of the intervention strategies. Three coders developed a codebook using an inductive approach to identify emergent themes and conducted coding in NVivo. Results Emergent themes fell into domains of intervention acceptability/feasibility and barriers. Mobile messaging about the child’s sleep duration goal was well-received, although child participants in particular desired more personalized messaging, with sleep promotion targeted to their specific sleep habits. Parents and children both discussed ancillary benefits to intervention participation, including an enhanced focus on sleep. Barriers to sleep extension during the intervention and maintenance of any gains post-intervention were related to: competing child academic, social, and extracurricular demands; family factors (work schedules; family rules and norms); and the challenges of limiting ubiquitous electronic devices. Conclusion Despite high parent-child acceptability of a mobile child sleep extension intervention, individual and contextual barriers may limit long-term adherence. Tailoring healthy sleep messages to target these factors could improve sustained benefits to child sleep. Support Sleep Research Society Foundation and K23HD094905 (AAW); NIH/NCATS UL1TR001878 (JAM and DFD) and K01HL123612 (JAM).