Predictors and long-term associations of reported sleeping difficulties in infancy

Abstract

Results are presented of a study on long-term associations between infant sleeping problems, as perceived by the parents, and the clinical health, growth, behaviour and development of a national cohort of children born in 1970. The proportions of first-born and later-born children said to have had frequent sleeping difficulties as infants up to 6 months of age were 17.7% and 11.2% respectively.

Best-fit models were developed using multiple logistic regression to identify, from a wide array of background variables, factors which were independently predictive of reported sleeping difficulties. With the exception of infant gender the two groups differed in the predictor sets with reproductive and obstetric variables of importance only in multiparae.

A variety of adverse clinical and behavioural associations with reported sleeping difficulties as an infant were determined at 5 and 10 years of age, once background factors were held constant. Maternal malaise at age 5, though significantly associated with the child's reported sleep disorder, did not explain these relationships. The teachers' report of the 10-year olds' behaviour was discordant with that of the mothers and showed no relationship with infant sleeping problems. Children with reported sleeping difficulties as infants were more likely to have later sleeping problems reported by their parents but they scored slightly higher on the vocabulary and reading tests administered at 5 and 10 years respectively.