Parents of children with physical disabilities - perceived health in parents related to the child's sleep problems and need for attention at night.

BACKGROUND: Approximately half of all children with moderate to severe physical disabilities have persistent sleep problems and many of these children need parental attention at night. AIM: To study whether sleep problems and need for night-time attention among children with physical disabilities are associated with perceived parental health, headache, psychological exhaustion, pain due to heavy lifting, night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep.
METHODS: We asked parents of 377 children with physical disabilities aged 1-16 years to complete a questionnaire about their own health. The children all lived at home with both parents.
RESULTS: Both parents reported poor health, psychological exhaustion, more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child had sleep problems (P < 0.05). Mothers also reported more headache when the child had sleep problems (P = 0.001). Both parents reported more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child needed night-time attention (P < 0.01). In general, mothers reported significantly poorer health, more night-time wakefulness, disrupted sleep, headache and psychological exhaustion than fathers (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Sleep problems need to be acknowledged within the paediatric setting in order to prevent psychological exhaustion and poor health in mothers and fathers of children with physical disabilities.