SLEEP DISTURBANCE, FATIGUE, AND STRESS AMONG CHINESE-AMERICAN PARENTS WITH ICU HOSPITALIZED INFANTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe Chinese-American parents' sleep disturbances and fatigue in relation to their stress levels, resulting from the hospitalization of their infants in intensive care units (ICUs). Four sets of data were collected: (1) Parents' demographic data and infant's medical records; (2) Subjective sleep data gathered from the General Sleep Disturbance Scale, from sleep diary descriptions, and objective sleep data from wrist actigraphy recordings; (3) Fatigue severity from the Numerical Rating Scale-Fatigue; and (4) Data from the Parental Stressor Scale: Infant Hospitalization. A majority of the mothers (93%) and fathers (60%) experienced sleep problems after their infants were admitted to the ICU. Mothers reported greater sleep disturbances and more severe fatigue than did fathers. Actigraphy records showed that mothers experienced much more wakeful time during the night than did fathers. In both gender categories, less total sleep time was related to reports of higher parental stress, and higher morning fatigue was related to subjectively reported sleep disturbances. Findings from this preliminary study demonstrate significant relationships among parents' perceived stress, impaired sleep, and fatigue severity during the infant's hospitalization period. Findings suggest implications for education of both ICU parents and staffs. This study could be replicated with a bigger sample size to further examine the relationships between parental stress and well-being.