WIP 08 - Impact of serial bedside video call communication on stress level in parents of infants admitted to neonatal intensive care unit

Publication Number: WIP 08.7579

Ugoeze C. Otome, John H Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL, Mount Prospect, IL, United States; Arielis Perez-Marte, Cook Children's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, United States; Kathryn Puzzella, Stroger Hospital, Chicago, IL, United States; Chandra Prasad. Paneru, John H Stroger Junior Hospital , Cook county health, Chicago, IL, United States; Aashika Janwadkar, John H Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL, United States; Vishakha Nanda, JSH, CHICAGO, IL, United States

Background: Stress in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has been widely studied, yet some areas remain unexplored to fully understand and alleviate parental stress. As the survival rate for premature infants has increased, so has the prevalence of NICU-related stress for parents. In 2021, 10.5% of U.S. live births were preterm, with 14.4% admitted to special care staying up to 46.2 days in hospital. Major stressors include parental role alteration, NICU environment, and infant appearance. Our NICU uses family-centered care, providing daily updates, encouraging skin-to-skin contact, and promoting bonding activities.

Objective: The goal of this study is to determine if serial bedside video calls w/audio feature to NICU parents can reduce parental stress as measured by Parental Stressor Scale: neonatal intensive care unit (PSS-NICU) questionnaire when compared to routine updates.

Design/Methods: This pilot randomized interventional study will enroll seventy infants admitted to tertiary care NICU and follow for up to 8 weeks or until discharge. Infants with intrauterine drug exposure, critical cardiac and neurologic anomalies will be excluded. Group A (intervention) will receive 2-3 weekly video calls via Doximity app, allowing parent-infant interaction and NICU team updates. Group B (control) will receive standard phone and bedside updates. Data will include demographics, infant clinical severity, and stress measured by PSS-NICU, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and State Trait Anxiety inventory (STAI) at three intervals (at 7-10 Day of Life (DOL), 14-21 DOL and at discharge or 6 - 8 weeks of age whichever comes first.

Descriptive statistics will be used across categories of sociodemographic and infant characteristics. Non-parameter data was evaluated with Mann-Whitney U test. Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact tests analyzed categorical variables, while regression assessed links between various variables, with p < 0.05 set for significance.