0923 PROVIDING THE BEST BEDROOM ENVIRONMENT FOR CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Abstract

Introduction: Between 23-46% of children with cerebral palsy have sleep problems. Often these sleep problems go undiagnosed and undertreated. Interventions, if offered, are most often pharmacological. However, medication side effects are a significant concern and there is a clear need to build the evidence-base for non-pharmacological sleep interventions for these children. A recent review of the evidence-base for environmental modifications to promote sleep showed promising results warranting further study. The study aims were to determine 1) if providing parents with manualized sleep education and problem solving strategies focused on the environment increased parental knowledge, and 2) if increased knowledge then translated into parental actions to decrease sleep negative features in the bedroom. Methods: This pilot study recruited child/parent participants through community agencies. Baseline and 6 week follow-up data collection included the Parental Sleep Environment Knowledge Questionnaire (PSEKQ), Parental Interactive Bedtime Behavior Scale, Child Sleep Habit Questionnaire, Parent Knowledge of Healthy Sleep and sleep actigraphy. Parents received the Children's Best Bedroom for Sleep (CBBES) manual (including sleep science information, self-assessment tool and environmental modification recommendation) as the intervention. Results: There were 6 parent/child participants. The PSEKQ improved slightly (66.66% at baseline to 78.33% at follow-up). Comparing baseline and post-intervention BEAC results demonstrated that parents' ability to assess their child's bedroom and act to modify environmental problems that interfered with sleep had improved. Actigraphy data was inconclusive and as expected, because the intervention focused on the environment, there was no change in parent bedtime beliefs and behavioural measures. Conclusion: Results support providing parents with a sleep environment psycho-education manual to build knowledge and skills for addressing environmental components of their child's sleep problems. This research is ongoing and future studies will test the CBBES with parents of children with a range of health conditions.