Sleep problems in urban, minority, early-school-aged children more prevalent than previously recognized.

OBJECTIVES: To use the children's sleep habits questionnaire (CSHQ) to characterize sleep problems in a group of 5- to 6-year-old minority children living in urban communities and to compare our findings with data from 5- to 6-year-old children in the original CSHQ validation study. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was used to collect sleep data from parents using the CSHQ. RESULTS: The CSHQ was completed by 160 parents; 150 (94%) scored ≥41, indicating a sleep problem. The prevalence of having sleep problems for our minority community sample was significantly higher than the original community sample (94% vs. 23%, P < .001). The minority sample also had significantly higher mean total CSHQ scores (51.5 vs 37.9, P < .001) and higher scores across all 8 subscales of the CSHQ (P < .001 for all comparisons). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that sleep problems may be more prevalent in urban, early-school-aged minority children than previously reported.