Sleep in mothers of children with epilepsy and its relation to their children's sleep

We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine sleep in mothers of children with epilepsy and its relation to their children's sleep. A total of 133 dyads of mothers and children with epilepsy aged 1.5–6 years were recruited between 2015 and 2018 from a children's hospital in northern Taiwan. Participating families provided demographic and health information, with children wearing an actigraphy monitor for 7 days and mothers completing sleep and depressive mood questionnaires. We found that 76 (57.1%) of the mothers had poor sleep quality, with 65 (48.9%) mothers having a clinically significant depressive symptom score. Mean actigraphic wake after sleep onset in children was 1.42 (standard deviation = 0.51) hours, with 126 (94.7%) of the children having a clinically significant sleep disturbance score. Multivariate regression analyses showed that higher depressive symptom scores in mothers (β = 0.14; p < .01) and higher sleep disturbance scores in children (β = 0.07; p = .04) were associated with poorer maternal sleep quality, even when maternal demographic characteristics and the child's clinical and epilepsy variables were considered. Findings from our study suggest that sleep disturbances are a shared problem for mothers and their children with epilepsy. Sleep in both mothers and their children with epilepsy should be evaluated in pediatric neurologic practices, with maternal depressive symptoms screened concurrently. Future pediatric epilepsy studies are warranted to examine whether a family-based intervention program would be effective to improve sleep in mother-child dyads and to promote better health and functioning of the entire family.     

The reporting of race and ethnicity information in the dental public health literature

Objectives: To document how race and ethnicity are identified, categorized, and utilized in contemporary dental public health literature. Methods: Two researchers independently performed a literature review of all articles in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology and the Journal of Public Health Dentistry over a 5‐year period (2004‐2009). Articles pertaining to the study of US‐based populations with any mention of race or ethnicity were included. The following data were abstracted from each article: a) how each article broadly described race and/or ethnicity; b) the terms used to specifically define the races and/or ethnicities captured; c) the location of any mention of the concept of race and/or ethnicity; d) the stated purpose for including race and/or ethnicity concepts; e) the stated analytic use of race and/or ethnicity concepts; and f) the stated method used to assess race and/or ethnicity concepts. Results: Overall, race and/or ethnicity concepts were most commonly referred to within the text of the results section. Fifty percent of articles did not state their purpose for including race and/or ethnicity concepts within their studies, while 34.3 percent omitted stating their analytic use of these concepts. When assessing these concepts, 41.4 percent relied upon subject self‐report. Conclusion: These data showed that there was inconsistent documentation of how race and ethnicity was measured. While race and ethnicity are important measures for public health studies and are frequently reported in dental public health research, there is no clear system for classifying these measures.