Enhancing Sleep Health Among Asian Americans: A Community-Engaged Intervention

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Asian Americans (henceforth noted as Asians) have experienced high rates of poor sleep and endorse more sleep-related symptoms and daytime sleepiness compared to Whites or Hispanics. Robust research has consistently demonstrated that poor sleep is associated with a higher risk of various health outcomes. Given the significant effects of poor sleep on health, promoting population sleep health through effective interventions is a public health priority. Despite existing efficacious interventions for poor sleep, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), none have been adapted or tested for Asians. Furthermore, numerous barriers to traditional CBT-I prevent Asians from accessing and benefiting from CBT-I. These include a lack of non-health professional interventionists who are linguistically and culturally competent; a perceived stigma of mental health treatment, including CBT-I, among Asians; CBT-I being developed and tested among primarily Whites; and a lack of scalability among Asians. We will address these barriers to improving sleep among Asians by testing a 5-week community-engaged, linguistically- and culturally adapted videoconference sleep intervention (ASLEEP [Asian American SLEep Empowerment Program]) delivered by trained bilingual and bicultural interventionists recruited from Asian communities in a randomized controlled trial. Participants will be identified and recruited from Asian communities, and a community advisory board will be established to provide input in every step of the program. The goal of this community-engaged project is to quantify the impact of ASLEEP on sleep and sleep-related outcomes (e.g., insomnia, sleep disturbance, sleep-related impairment, sleep duration, and depressive and anxiety symptoms) among 150 community-dwelling Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese Americans adults who have poor sleep. Outcome assessments will occur at post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12 months to assess both short- and long-term effects of ASLEEP. We will also evaluate study process measures to inform future research on effectiveness. ASLEEP has been adapted and refined based on core components of CBT-I, conceptual models, findings from extensive preliminary studies, and input from our community advisory board. This project includes several innovations, including the first sleep intervention study for Asians, community engagement, cultural adaptation, and high potential for enhanced scalability. ASLEEP will be one of the first linguistically and culturally adapted sleep interventions for Asians, an understudied population at higher risk for poorer sleep and limited English proficiency. This community-engaged program would generate data for a potentially scalable sleep program tailored for Asians that overcome barriers to improving sleep and inform a larger future effectiveness study to improve sleep among a high-risk group and potentially reduce sleep-related health disparities.