Abstract
BackgroundChildren with disabilities are more likely to have sleep disturbances than children without disabilities. Identifying attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions of caregivers and health professionals is essential in developing effective intervention programs to improve disabled children’s sleep health. However, no such qualitative data about adults who have key roles in the life and daytime activities of children with disabilities are available. This qualitative study aimed to understand attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions about disabled children’s sleep hygiene among caregivers and rehabilitation providers of children with disabilities.MethodsTwenty seven adults, including nine primary caregivers and eighteen rehabilitation providers, participated in five focus group discussions between September and December 2012 at the Rehabilitation Center in Punta Arenas, Chile. A trained facilitator guided focus group discussions using a semi-structured script. Audiotapes and transcripts of focus group discussions were reviewed and analyzed for recurrent themes.ResultsParticipants identified seven themes related to children’s sleep hygiene: lifestyle behaviors, family factors, children’s disabilities and/or comorbidities, environmental factors, adults’ responsibilities for children’s sleep, perception of good sleep, and parental distress about children’s sleep problems. While both caregivers and rehabilitation providers recognized the importance of sleep for children’s health and functioning, they differed in their understanding of how sleep hygiene practices influence sleep. Rehabilitation providers recognized the negative influence of electronics on sleep and the positive influence of sleep routines. In contrast, caregivers reported use of television/movie watching and stimulants as coping strategies for managing children’s sleep problems.ConclusionsCaregivers may benefit from better understanding the influence of electronics and stimulant use on child sleep health. Rehabilitation providers are well positioned to provide educational messages to both children and caregivers in order to change their attitudes, perceptions, and practices surrounding sleep. These qualitative data are valuable in developing intervention programs aimed at improving sleep health among children with disabilities.
Highlights
Children with disabilities are more likely to have sleep disturbances than children without disabilities
The observations that caregivers and rehabilitation providers had opposing perspectives regarding the influences of lifestyle characteristics such as electronics, coffee consumption, and medication use on child sleep, and that most individuals had high levels of concern over children’s sleep but often under-estimated sleep needs of children may be of fundamental importance for informing the design of intervention programs aimed at improving sleep health among children with disabilities
Given that interventions can be delivered in various ways, future research should address the preferred ways caregivers want to receive information and preferred delivery methods by health professionals. This qualitative study showed that caregivers exhibited awareness of behavioral, environmental, and family factors related to children’s sleep hygiene
Summary
Children with disabilities are more likely to have sleep disturbances than children without disabilities. Identifying attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions of caregivers and health professionals is essential in developing effective intervention programs to improve disabled children’s sleep health No such qualitative data about adults who have key roles in the life and daytime activities of children with disabilities are available. This qualitative study aimed to understand attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions about disabled children’s sleep hygiene among caregivers and rehabilitation providers of children with disabilities. Since successful interventions should reflect the views of targeted populations [10], focus groups are commonly used because they can efficiently explore the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of the participants In this qualitative study, we conducted focus group interviews about children’s sleep with primary caregivers and rehabilitation providers of children with disabilities. The aims of this study were to: 1) understand the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions of caregivers and rehabilitation providers of children with disabilities regarding children’s sleep; 2) identify factors that could facilitate or impair children’s sleep hygiene; and 3) identify areas for intervention and improvement of children’s sleep health
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