Risk Factor for Infant Mortality in the City of Milwaukee, 1993-2007 Han-Yang Chen, Naoyo Mori, Trina C. Salm Ward, Jessica P. Bergstrom

Factors associated with racial disparities in maternal-infant bed-sharing: Findings from Wisconsin BACKGROUNDBed-sharing is associated with an increased risk of sleep-related infant deaths.2Disproportionately higher rates of sleep-related infant deaths occur for African Americans.3Separate but proximate sleep surface for infants recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).1Maternal-infant bed-sharing remains a common practice, especially among African Americans.

Study PurposeTo examine factors associated with bed-sharing among African American and White mothers in Wisconsin. AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge Wisconsin PRAMS mothers; Jennifer Doering, PhD, RN and Paul Florsheim, PhD (Dissertation Committee Members); the Center for Urban Population Health; a Dissertation Grant from the College of Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and statistical support from the University of Georgia Statistical Consulting Center.Wisconsin Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data were collected and provided by the PRAMS Project in the Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement grant number UR6/DP000492 provided funding for data collection and some staff support. The PRAMS Working Group is also acknowledged.Trina C. Salm Ward, PhD, MSW1,2,3; Emmanuel Ngui, DrPH, MSc2;4; Mary K. Madsen, PhD, RN3; Ron A. Cisler, PhD2,3,41The University of Georgia School of Social Work and the College of Public Health; 2Center for Urban Population Health; 3University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Health Sciences; 4University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Joseph J. Zilber School of Public HealthMETHODSData: Wisconsin Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) dataset (2007-2010).Stratified sample of linked survey and birth certificate data.N = 2,486 (806 non-Hispanic African Americans; 1,680 non-Hispanic Whites).Bed-sharing: How often does your new baby sleep in the same bed as you or anyone else?Yes: Always, Often, Sometimes, RarelyNo: NeverSeparate logistic regression models run for African Americans and Whites using weight variable.Review by UW-Milwaukee and UGA Institutional Review Boards.CONCLUSIONSFindings suggest the need:For more research on context and reasons for bed-sharing:Sources of information about infant sleep.Decision-making process about sleep location (influences on decisions and how risks and benefits are weighed).To engage fathers/partners in bed-sharing discussions and in the postnatal period.4To tailor culturally-salient safe sleep interventions to sub-populations at higher risk of sleep-related infant death.When speaking with families, providers should:Discuss specific context of infant sleep (environment, motivations and reasons).Working within that context, help family increase safety of infants sleep environment (for example, sharing AAP recommendations).5RESULTSOverall, more African Americans (70.6%) bed-shared than Whites (53.4%), p < 0.001. As show in Table 1:African Americans: Higher proportion of bed-sharing mothers had >12 years of education, did not use Medicaid, and experienced partner-related stress.Whites: Higher proportion of bed-sharing mothers experienced abuse, breastfed, earned