Evaluating Accessible Sleep Health Information in Rural and Urban Contexts: Delivery Face-to-Face or Online?

Objective: New parents need education about infant sleep but is not universally available especially not in regional and rural areas. We delivered sleep education both face-to-face and online to test sleep knowledge acquisition for parents wherever they reside. Best practice delivery of accessible sleep health information for new families needs to be investigated more carefully in order for specialist services to be universally available.

Methods: Pre- and post-information session questionnaires (n = 32) assessed levels of knowledge acquisition and comparisons tested differences between face-to-face seminars compared with an online webinar.

Results: Sleep knowledge across participants was low (69% scoring < 50%). Sleep knowledge significantly increased for both the webinar delivery group (P = .002) and face-to-face delivery group (P = .001). No significant differences in knowledge acquisition were found between face-to-face vs online delivery (P = .170), suggesting both modes of delivery were sufficient to improve parental sleep knowledge.

Conclusions: Parental sleep knowledge, while low, increased with education. Online delivery was similar to face-to-face delivery suggesting ease of access for rural and remote communities needing specialist sleep information.

Implications for public health: Information delivered online is effective and offers a health delivery solution to regional and remote parents unable to access sleep services and rendering sleep service accessibility more equitable.