Infant sleep disturbance is associated with preconceptional psychological distress: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey

Baird, Janis, Hill, Catherine M., Kendrick, Tony and Inskip, Hazel M. (2009) Infant sleep disturbance is associated with preconceptional psychological distress: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey. Sleep, 32 (4), 566-568.

Abstract

Study Objective: To determine whether preconceptional psychological distress is associated with infant sleep disturbance.
Design: Prospective cohort study
Setting: Southampton, UK.
Participants: Acohort of women from the Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS), who were recruited between 20-34 years of age and followed through their subsequent pregnancies and beyond; a total of 874 mother-infant pairs were involved in the study.
Measurements and Results: Preconceptional psychological distress was measured with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). When their infants were 6 and 12 months of age, mothers were asked to report the number of times babies woke on average between the hours of midnight and 06:00 each night during a 2-week period. Preconceptional psychological distress was a strong predictor of infant night waking at both 6 and 12 months of age, independent of the effects of postnatal depression, bedroom sharing, and other confounding factors. At 6 months, preconceptional distress was associated with a 23% increased risk of waking (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.06-1.44), and at 12 months with a 22% increased risk (PR 1.22, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.02-1.46).
Conclusions: Women with preconceptional psychological distress are more likely to have babies with sleep disturbance during infancy, independent of whether they suffered from postnatal depression.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Janis Baird

Author: Catherine M. Hill

Author: Tony Kendrick

Author: Hazel M. Inskip

Download statistics