Message Dissemination Strategies of the Safe to Sleep Campaign to Reduce Infant Mortality

Background:  The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) expanded its Back to Sleep campaign, originally focused on reducing the risk of SIDS, to encompass all sleep-related causes of infant death. The new campaign, Safe to Sleep, aims to promote safe infant sleep environments and address racial and ethnic disparities through tailored outreach and collaboration.

Program background:  To promote the campaign and spread its messages, the NICHD created the Safe to Sleep Champions Initiative to draw on the power of community leaders to improve health outcomes. This effective public health strategy relies on the credibility of community members and local health experts to localize a public health issue. The goal of the Champions Initiative is to share the new campaign’s messages using local media outlets and community outreach.  During the pilot phase, the NICHD selected and trained 36 health professionals from 21 states with the highest rate of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death, and equipped them with tools and resources to disseminate the campaign’s key messages. In total, Champions achieved 81 media hits, reaching a potential audience of more than 4.8 million people. Now in its second phase, the Champions Initiative has helped stakeholders nationwide conduct media and outreach activities. In total, nearly 1,000 individuals have volunteered to be Champions. This initiative encourages health professionals and community stakeholders to use consistent messaging to educate the public about safe infant sleep. The campaign is utilizing media promotion efforts, including distributing a new video on safe infant sleep that can be viewed in waiting rooms at more than 400 OB/GYN and pediatrician offices. In addition, print advertisements highlighting the campaign will be placed in a parenting magazine that has over three million subscribers. The NICHD is also launching a robust campaign website that will include an interactive tool to engage viewers to learn what makes an infant’s sleep environment safe. Additional campaign outreach efforts target the top 15 states with the highest rates of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. These efforts include helping state health departments support their own  initiatives and engaging  infant health programs to train health care professionals on safe infant sleep practices and to disseminate safe infant sleep messages. An electronic toolkit for state and local organizations is being disseminated to facilitate their efforts and promote the availability of campaign materials. Items in the toolkit can be used by organizations within their existing communications channels, include templates that promote the availability of the new materials, sample social media postings, and a Web banner/button to easily link back to the Safe to Sleep campaign website.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Evaluation is being conducted on the entire Safe to Sleep campaign.

Conclusions:  Through these strategic dissemination activities, it is hoped that parents and other caregivers across the country will become aware of the Safe to Sleep campaign and ultimately adopt safe sleep practices for infants.

Implications for research and/or practice:  The expansion of the Safe to Sleep campaign campaign and addressing broader causes of infant mortality will help continue to strengthen infant outcomes.