Measure Status: Active
Evidence Level: There is limited research in the evidence base to support this strategy.
Measurement Quadrant: Quadrant 1: Measuring quantity of effort (counts and "yes/no" activities)
Service Type: Enabling services level of pyramid
Essential Public Health Services: 3. Inform and educate the public
Service Recipient: Activities related to systems-building
Goal: Expand outreach to Non-English-speaking families and care givers through translation of educational and general awareness safe sleep messages.
Numerator: Number of languages Departments of Health (DOH) & Human Services (DHS) safe sleep are available for Hawaii’s communities
Denominator: N/A
Significance: About 3,500 US infants die suddenly and unexpectedly each year. These deaths are referred to as sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID). SUID is one of the three leading-causes of death among infants nationally and in Hawaii (Hayes DK, Calhoun CR, Byers TJ, Chock LR, Heu PL, Tomiyasu DW, Sakamoto DT, and Fuddy LJ. Saving Babies: Reducing Infant Mortality in Hawaii. Hawaii Journal of Medicine and Public Health. 2013. 72 (2): 246-251).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends a safe sleep environment to reduce the risk of all sleep-related infant deaths. AAP recommendations for a safe sleep environment include supine positioning, the use of a firm sleep surface, room-sharing without bed-sharing, and the avoidance of soft bedding and overheating. Additional recommendations for SUID reduction include the avoidance of exposure to smoke, alcohol, and illicit drugs; breastfeeding; routine immunization; and use of a pacifier.
The AAP recommends education should include all who care for infants, including parents, child care providers, grandparents, foster parents, and babysitters, and should include strategies for overcoming barriers to behavior change.
Research on health education and SUID outreach has found that response to safe sleep messages differed among different communities and racial/ethnic groups, which may help explain some of the lingering differences in SUID rates. Therefore, campaigns should have a special focus on getting safe sleep messages to parents and caregivers in diverse communities because of the higher incidence of SUID and other sleep-related infant deaths in these groups.
Data Sources and Data Issues: Data will be collected by Safe Sleep Hawaii about the efforts by DOH, DHS and the State Office of Language Access to translate educational materials into other languages for use by non-English speakers.
Year: 2020
Unit Type: Simple Count, Unit Number: 20