Department of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, 1010 N. Kansas, Wichita, KS, 67214, USA,
J Community Health. 2014 Apr;39(2):285-90. doi: 10.1007/s10900-013-9757-y.
Safe sleep practices reduce an infant's risk for sudden infant death syndrome and sleep-related death. While rates of infants placed on their back to sleep are high, other safe sleep practices are less widely implemented. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of using cosmetologists as health promoters for infant safe sleep to reduce infant mortality. In this descriptive study, a 27-item survey was mailed to the 405 licensed cosmetologists residing in the five zip codes with the highest infant mortality rates in the county. Of 149 completed surveys (36.8 %), 103 cosmetologists (69.1 %) were currently working. Most were comfortable (68.9 %) promoting health topics with their clients. Popular health-related topics currently discussed included: diet/weight control, healthy eating, and physical activity. Few (≤13 %) were interested in discussing infant mortality prevention or safe sleep promotion. Most respondents were either unsure (56 %) or did not feel infant mortality was a problem in their community (41 %); however, more than half (53 %) knew someone who had experienced an infant death. Cosmetologists were not highly interested in providing safe sleep education; however they engaged in diet and exercise talk already. Cosmetologists may be more appropriate for obesity-prevention programs to reduce infant mortality than safe sleep promotion.
安全睡眠措施可降低婴儿患婴儿猝死综合征和与睡眠相关的死亡风险。虽然让婴儿仰卧入睡的比例很高，但其他安全睡眠措施的实施程度较低。我们的目的是评估将美容师作为婴儿安全睡眠的健康促进者来降低婴儿死亡率的可行性。在这项描述性研究中，向该县五个婴儿死亡率最高的邮政编码内的 405 名持照美容师邮寄了一份包含 27 个问题的调查问卷。在完成的 149 份调查中（36.8%），有 103 名美容师（69.1%）目前正在工作。大多数美容师（68.9%）在与客户交流时都感到舒适，可以谈论健康话题。目前讨论较多的热门健康相关话题包括：饮食/体重控制、健康饮食和体育活动。很少有美容师（≤13%）有兴趣讨论预防婴儿死亡率或促进安全睡眠。大多数受访者要么不确定（56%），要么不认为婴儿死亡率是他们社区的一个问题（41%）；然而，超过一半（53%）的受访者认识有人经历过婴儿死亡。美容师对提供安全睡眠教育的兴趣不高；然而，他们已经在进行饮食和运动方面的讨论。与促进安全睡眠相比，美容师可能更适合参与预防肥胖的项目，以降低婴儿死亡率。
