Impact of a structured sleep education program on mothers' knowledge and attitudes toward infant sleeping

Abstract

Introduction: Sleeping is necessary for the infant growth and development. Sufficient and quality of sleep can have an impact on physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning. Infancy is a critical time for establishing healthy habits and routines. However, many infants were suffering from sleeping issues that impact their health. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the effect of educational programs given to mothers regarding their infants' sleep on mothers' knowledge and attitudes toward infant's sleeping. Method: A quasi-experimental design for nonequivalent groups was used, and data was collected from 208 mothers with infants aged 5–12 months from all Jordanian governorates who had not been exposed to educational programs prior to this study. Data was collected in two stages: pre-test and post-test, with two weeks in between for both groups. Results: The final results indicated that the educational intervention had a significant impact on mothers' knowledge over time. It was found that mothers in the intervention group had significantly higher mean of infant sleep health knowledge at follow up time compared to their baseline time (B = 0.236, P 0.001). Also, the yielded analysis showed that there was no significant change in mothers' mean attitudes toward infants sleeping over time (P = 0.011). The mothers’ measured sleep health knowledge correlated positively and significantly statistically with their sleep health attitudes score (r = 0.436, P 0.010).

Keywords

• Sleeping habits
• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Infant