Sleep in Parental Caregivers and Children With Type 1 Diabetes

The purpose of this cross-sectional, descriptive, pilot study was to examine the correlations in sleep between caregivers (≥18 years) and young (6-12 years) children with type 1 diabetes. Sleep was measured in both parent and child over 7 days using actigraphy and a sleep diary. Parents completed questionnaires on sleep, stress, depressive symptoms, and demographics. Children completed pediatric anxiety and fatigue questionnaires, and A1C (Hemoglobin A1c) was documented at clinic. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were used to analyze data. Parents (N = 18, mean age: 39.3 ± 5.4 years, 100% Caucasian, 83% mothers) and children (N = 18, mean age: 9.6 ± 2.4 years, diagnosed for mean 3.0 ± 2.4 years, 66% female, mean A1C: 7.5 ± 0.8%) were recruited. Strong to moderate correlations were found for several measures including sleep measures based on actigraphy: mean sleep duration (hours; 7.6 ± 0.7 for parents and 8.8 ± 0.8 for children; r = .638, p = .004), mean sleep efficiency (r = .823, p < .001), and mean daily wake after sleep onset (minutes; r = .530, p = .024).