Community Health Promotion Plan for Sudden Infant Deaths Syndrome (SIDS)

Community Health Promotion Plan
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Health Concern
Sudden Infant Deaths Syndrome (SIDS) is a sudden death of a baby less than a year old. It is one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the United States and globally. Although the exact cause is SIDS is unknown, healthcare professionals believe that brain defects, low birth weight, and respiratory infection may lead to the problem (Maged & Rizzolo, 2018). Environmental factors like exposure to cigarette smoke, getting tangled in bedding, overheating the baby during sleep, unsafe sleeping practices like placing the baby face down, and breathing obstruction have also been associated with SIDS.
The increased prevalence of this health problem calls for an appropriate health promotion plan to empower and engage communities to choose healthy lifestyles and make significant changes that lower the risk of SIDS. This health promotion plan targets infants younger than the one-year-old that are highly vulnerable to SIDS. This is after the death of a months-old Native American boy, who was born normal but died suddenly without valid reasons. Two possible explanations arose after investigating the factors that could have contributed to the death. First, the baby slept facing down, obstructing breathing. Second, the baby was exposed to cigarette smoke before and after birth.
Population
The chosen population comprises African American women and their newly-born babies. Most infants in the targeted community are younger than one year, making them best suitable for this health promotion plan. Their mothers’ ages range between 20 and 35 years. Some are married, while others are single. The mothers seem to live unhealthy lifestyles due to their smoking habits. Some of them are active smokers and used to smoke during pregnancy. Others are secondhand smoke—many men in the community smoke, exposing their wives and young children to harmful substances from tobacco. Regarding income, most households are low-income earners due to low education attainment. They do not have adequate knowledge and skills to attract white-collar jobs.
Importance of a Health Concern within the Population
The health concern helps identify potential risk factors and design appropriate measures to address the problem and prevent its future occurrence. Addressing this health concern improves the lives of infants by preventing SIDS. Mothers will no longer worry about the prevalence of this health concern. Therefore, SIDS helps identify the best solutions suitable for the targeted population.
Characteristics of the Chosen Group
The selected hypothetical group is African American infants living in the US. The infants are less than one year, have normal body weight, and appear healthy. However, the infants in the chosen community are highly exposed to cigarette smoke. These characteristics are relevant to this targeted population because they help determine the susceptibility rate of SIDS in this community. Regarding age, studies have shown that infants are most vulnerable between the second and fourth months of life (Maged & Rizzolo, 2018). Infants targeted in this community are between 0 and 12 months. The age range lies within the susceptibility rate.
Another characteristic of the population is race. This feature is relevant as it helps to determine the relationship between race and SIDS. Some studies have indicated that African Americans have a higher infant mortality rate than whites. Mathews et al. (2016) attributed this disparity to unsafe sleeping practices, which are common among African Americans. For instance, African-American mothers are highly likely to practice bed sharing and use nonstandard sleep surfaces than their white counterparts. These practices increase the risk of SIDS. Other studies have attributed the disparity to low income and low educational attainment in African American communities.
Another feature identified is cigarette smoking. As noted, the targeted population is highly exposed to cigarette smoke, which increases the risk of SIDS. According to Bednarczuk et al. (2020), some of tobacco smoke's chemicals alter the infant's brain and lungs' development, affecting the baby's respiratory processes. Therefore, the characteristics of the chosen group help determine the extent to which the targeted population is vulnerable to SIDS.
Predisposition
The chosen population is predisposed to SIDS because of the unsafe sleep practices of their mothers. As discussed in the previous section, African Americans are highly likely to share beds with infants, lay the baby on inappropriate sleeping surfaces, and e...