Infant Sleep Position: A Telephone Survey of Inner-city Parents of Color

Objective. To assess what positions parents were placing their infants to sleep and their opinion about sleep positioning. Design. A prospective telephone survey of parents of 2-month-old infants with repeated measures at 4 months that began during the second wave of the Back to Sleep campaign in 1994. Participants. African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian parents from inner cities in the north central United States. Results. Preference for prone positioning existed at both 2 and 4 months (over 40%). Twenty-four percent of parents disagreed with the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding supine or lateral positioning. Conclusions. Although prone sleep positioning has decreased over the past 5 years, many inner-city parents of color prefer this over supine. The Back to Sleep campaign appears effective in changing attitudes and medical personnel appear influential in promoting risk reductions associated with sudden infant death syndrome. More efforts are clearly needed to convince parents who disagree with and resist recommendations.sleep, infants, SIDS, African-Americans, Back to Sleep (campaign).