Parents of children with physical disabilities - perceived health in parents related to the child's sleep problems and need for attention at night
- Författare
- Mörelius E, Hemmingsson H
- Titel
- Parents of children with physical disabilities - perceived health in parents related to the child's sleep problems and need for attention at night
- Utgivningsår
- 2014
- Tidskrift
- Child Care Health Dev
- Volym
- 40
- Häfte
- 3
- Sidor
- 412-8
- Sammanfattning
BACKGROUND: 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.
AIM: 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.
METHODS: 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.
RESULTS: 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).
CONCLUSIONS: 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.