A PROSPECTIVE INTERVENTIONAL STUDY ON STRESS LEVELS AMONGST PARENTS OF BABIES ADMITTED TO NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT IN A RURAL TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
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Keywords
Neonatal intensive care unit, parental stress scale, stress, Counselling
Abstract
Background: The birth of a child is a period of high stress for a couple, especially as they become a parent. During this time, there can be a high stress, if the child gets admitted in the NICU. India is a developing country with a lot of newer advances in the field of paediatrics and the intensive care units. Very little research has been done regarding the perception of stress of parents in NICU. Our research is set in a rural tertiary hospital care setup with a level 3 NICU, which aims to perceive the stress of parents admitted to the neonatal intensive care units and the correlation of this stress pre and post counselling in NICU.
Objectives: To determine stress levels amongst parents of babies admitted to NICU and identify the parameters that affect the stress levels and to assess the effect of counselling using parental stress scale (PSS scale)
Methodology: It is a Hospital based observational study that involved all the Babies delivered in Adichunchanagiri Hospital and research institute. A sample size of 353 babies was taken and using the PSS scale, and all the parents of the babies admitted to NICU were given the questionnaire to look for the stressors in NICU. Data was analysed using licensed Version of SPSS 22.
Results: We studied 353 parents of babies admitted to the NICU regarding the stress scales.
There was noted to be a significant difference (p value <0.05) in all three subgroups of the PSS Scale when comparing the pre and post counselling stress levels of the parents.
The mean ± SD score of 4.1018 ± 0.43946 for sights and sounds has reduced to 3.4018 ± 0.68310 after counselling and it is statistically significant at p value of 0.001. significance.
For the sub category of "Sights and sounds" P value was found to be statistically significant for birthweight (p value of 0.003), Period of gestation (P value of 0.021) and mothers highest education (P value of 0.039) indicating that higher level of stress was noted to occur among parents with babies having low birth weight (<2500 gm), low gestational age (less than 37 weeks) and illiteracy in the mother.
Conclusion: With the above research our study concludes that there was a significant decrease in the stress levels of parents of babies admitted in the neonatal care unit, post counselling. As the Sights and sounds subgroup was found to have a significant association with the sociodemographic details, thus NICU setup can help reduce the stress levels of parents, if we look into the above given components of “sights and sounds” along with the necessary counselling in reassurance .
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Dr. Aditi Gaonkar
Junior Resident, Department of Pediatrics, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences Adichunchanagiri University, B G Nagara-571448, Karnataka, India.
Email id- gaonkar.aditi@bgsaims.edu.in
Dr. K B Mahendrappa
Professor and HOD, Department of Paediatrics, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences,
Adichunchanagiri University, B G Nagara-571448, Karnataka, India,
Email id- drmahendrappakb@bgsaims.edu.in