Family-Centered Digital Behavioral Sleep Intervention for Black Families of Preschool-Aged Children

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PROJECT SUMMARY Short sleep duration is linked with obesity risk in children.1, 2 The prevalence of short sleep duration is 35% among American preschoolers (3 to 5-year-olds) and 53% for Black-American children,3 a glaring health disparity. Sleep disparities in young Black children are hypothesized to be due to social determinants of health, including structural racism and poverty that permeate multiple socio-environmental levels of children’s lives, especially through parenting practices.4-6 Establishing a regular bedtime routine has been recognized as a modifiable parenting behavior to optimize sleep duration. And, digital technology offers an acceptable platform to reach Black families of young children.7 My long-term career objective is to bridge access of evidence-based interventions to Black families via dissemination and implementation science strategies integrated into community systems. My career goal is to become an independent scientist in sleep health interventions to reduce health disparities through family-centered research. This K01 proposal aims to increase access of Black parents of young children to evidence-based strategies known to optimize sleep health. My specific aims are: Aim 1. Develop a digital prototype of evidence-based strategies for establishing a bedtime routine based on using a mixed methods approach (i.e., focus groups and survey data) that considers the lived experiences of 20 Black families of 3- to 5-year-olds with sleep problems; Aim 2: Test the feasibility of the intervention content and digital implementation procedure and iteratively develop the intervention through user journey methods (i.e., cognitive walk-through and think-aloud sessions), and implementation feasibility questionnaire with the same 20 Black families engaged in Aim 1; and Aim 3: Test the acceptability and estimate the impact of the optimized digital intervention through a single-arm pilot study with 40 Black families of 3- to 5-year-olds with sleep problems. Primary outcomes are: Parent knowledge, parenting practices related to establishing bedtime routines, child sleep duration and child bedtime resistance. To achieve this objective, my career development plan includes: 1) obtain training and expertise in behavioral sleep medicine, 2) build expertise in dissemination and implementation science strategies, related to parent engagement; 3) gain hands-on experience conducting an integrated family-centered evidence-informed digital sleep intervention to improve sleep in the family unit; and 4) biostatistical analysis and clinical trial design skills. At NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, I will have access to resources from the Department, the Division of Health and Behavior, the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development, NYU Langone Family Health Centers, and the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity, directed by my advisor Dr. Ogedegbe.