Effect of nurture intervention on neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm neonates admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Rapid development in medical technology has increased neonatal survival rates worldwide but neurodevelopment concerns continue Paving way to healthy neurodevelopment is an urgent need Developmentally supportive interventions are part of routine care in the neonatal intensive care unit NICU but search for further improving outcomes are needed This randomized controlled trial RCT aimed to evaluate the impact of nurture intervention among preterm neonates in a NICU setting and compare the neurodevelopmental outcomes between the nurture and standard care group at 12 months of corrected age CA A sample size of 117 mother neonate dyads born between 26 to 34 weeks of gestation was included with 61 neonates in the nurture and 56 neonates in the standard care group The nurture group received nurture intervention Univariate analysis depicted no difference between both groups however multivariate analysis after adjustment depicted that nurture intervention brought about a significant difference in neurodevelopmental outcomes communication skill development Odds Ratio OR equals 1 point 56 95 percentage Confidence Interval CI gross motor development OR equals 1 point 61 95 percentage CI fine motor development OR equals 1 point 5 95 percentage CI and problem solving skill development OR equals 1 point 68 95 percentage CI There was a statistically significant decrease in the depression scores at discharge in the nurture group p equals 0 point 004 Nurture interventions demonstrated a potential benefit in select components of infant development Nurture also demonstrated a significant reduction in postpartum depression newline newline newline