The impact of pandemic restrictive visiting policies on infant wellbeing in a NICU

Autor(en)

Vito Giordano, Renate Fuiko, Andrea Witting, Lukas Unterasinger, Philipp Steinbauer, Johanna Bajer, Alex Farr, Stefanie Hoehl, Philipp Deindl, Monika Olischar, Angelika Berger, Katrin Klebermass-Schrehof

Abstrakt

BACKGROUND: Given the countrywide lockdown in the first pandemic period and the respective Hospital restrictive policies, we aimed to investigate if the SARS-COV-2 pandemic was associated to a reduced parental presence in the NICU and in which form this had an impact on infant wellbeing.

METHODS: Retrospective cohort study about altered NICUs parental presence (measured by number of visits and kangaroo care time) due to pandemic restrictive policies and its impact on infant wellbeing (measured through The Neonatal Pain Agitation and Sedation scale and nurses' descriptive documentation).

RESULTS: Presence of both parents at the same time was significantly lower during pandemic. Contrary, maternal presence only and total kangaroo-care time were higher within the pandemic (163.36 ± 94.07 vs 122.71 ± 64.03; p = 0.000). Lower NPASS values were documented during the lookdown (1.28 ± 1.7 vs 1.78 ± 2.2; p = 0.000).

CONCLUSION: Data collected through the pandemic confirm the importance of parental presence for infants' wellbeing in a NICU setting.

IMPACT: Parental support is an extremely important aspect for infants hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Their presence was limited in many NICUs worldwide during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. This study confirm the importance of parental presence for infants' wellbeing also in a pandemic situation. Our results support a family-centered newborn individualized developmental care approach in the NICU.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie, Institut für Psychologie der Entwicklung und Bildung

Externe Organisation(en)

Medizinische Universität Wien, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Journal

Pediatric Research

Band

Seiten

1098-1103

Anzahl der Seiten

ISSN

0031-3998

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02562-w

Publikationsdatum

03-2023

Peer-reviewed

ÖFOS 2012

501005 Entwicklungspsychologie

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f70f4b15-e3d5-4547-9c5a-edd3b82e7172