Effects of Early Vocal Contact (EVC) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

Aims This study aims to test the effects of EVC on infants born prematurely between 25 and 32 weeks and 6 days GA. The effects on newborns will be assessed at physiological (primary outcome), neurobehavioral, and developmental levels during the intervention, at term equivalent age, and at 12- and 24...

Aims This study aims to test the effects of EVC on infants born prematurely between 25 and 32 weeks and 6 days GA. The effects on newborns will be assessed at physiological (primary outcome), neurobehavioral, and developmental levels during the intervention, at term equivalent age, and at 12- and 24-months CA. The effect of EVC will also be assessed on maternal stress at hospital discharge and on the mother's presence in the NICU. Design A four-site randomized controlled trial will be conducted to investigate the short- and long-term physiological and neurobehavioral effects of EVC. Participants Eighty preterm infants, born at 25 to 32 weeks and 6 days GA, will be recruited from the four centres (20 per centre). Recruitment will be undertaken in each centre by a trained research assistant (RA), who will review birth records daily. After obtaining permission from the attending physicians of both the mother and the infant, the RA will invite qualifying families to participate in the study and will obtain written informed consent from those enrolling. Infants will be then assigned to the EVC intervention or control group using a randomized design, stratifying infants by gender and GA (see Randomization). Mothers whose infants are assigned to the control group will be asked to spend the same amount of time as that of mothers in the intervention group, observing their infants' spontaneous behaviour, with the subsequent compilation of an observation grid developed ad hoc, according to few indicators drawn from The Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS).

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