Neighborhood deprivation predicts infant sleep quality

Abstract

Objectives: The current study examined the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and infant sleep at 3 months of age.

Methods: Neighborhood and sleep data were collected from 80 African American infants and their caregivers. A composite neighborhood deprivation score was created using census data. Infant sleep was measured via 7 nights of actigraphy monitoring when infants were 3 months of age. Current analyses considered the average number of infant night wakings as an index of sleep quality. Multilevel models were used, in which children (level 1) were nested within census tracts (level 2).

Results: Controlling for level 1 covariates, greater neighborhood deprivation (b = 0.07, P < .01), was associated with poorer infant sleep, as characterized by a greater number of wakings during the nighttime sleep period.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that infants who reside in communities marked by higher deprivation experience poorer quality sleep, even after controlling for family-level factors.

Keywords: Actigraphy; Census data; Infancy; Neighborhood; Sleep.