In the United States, one of the leading causes of infant death is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Some risk factors of SIDS include unsafe infant sleep practices in the forms of bed sharing, babies sleeping on their backs or sides, overheating, and exposure to tobacco smoke. Common recommendations for minimizing sleep-related infant deaths including placing babies on their backs for all sleep times, using a firm sleep surface, room sharing but not bed sharing, only bringing babies to bed to feed or comfort, never placing babies to sleep on a couch, sofa, or armchair, not placing other objects in babies’ sleep areas, and refraining from smoking and using alcohol or illicit drugs while pregnant and after having your babies.  

Many programs that focus on promoting safe infant sleep practices use these guidelines to inform their work, but evaluations of such programs are rare. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of some playard distribution programs located on O‘ahu that encourage safe sleep practices among families with infants. We hope to identify components and practices of existing playard distribution programs that are effective or ineffective in reaching their program goals. This project is funded by the Hawai‘i State Department of Health.