Parents of children with physical disabilities – perceived health in parents related to the child's sleep problems and need for attention at night

Abstract

Approximately half of all children with moderate to severe physical disabilities have persistent sleep problems and many of these children need parental attention at night. To study whether sleep problems and need for night-time attention among children with physical disabilities are associated with perceived parental health, headache, psychological exhaustion, pain due to heavy lifting, night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep. We asked parents of 377 children with physical disabilities aged 1-16 years to complete a questionnaire about their own health. The children all lived at home with both parents. Both parents reported poor health, psychological exhaustion, more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child had sleep problems (P < 0.05). Mothers also reported more headache when the child had sleep problems (P = 0.001). Both parents reported more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child needed night-time attention (P < 0.01). In general, mothers reported significantly poorer health, more night-time wakefulness, disrupted sleep, headache and psychological exhaustion than fathers (P < 0.001). Sleep problems need to be acknowledged within the paediatric setting in order to prevent psychological exhaustion and poor health in mothers and fathers of children with physical disabilities.