Physiological stress responses in infants at 29–32 weeks’ postmenstrual age during clustered nursing cares and standardised neurobehavioural assessments

摘要

Objective To compare the physiological stress responses of infants born 180 beats per minute (bpm)) or bradycardia (HR 2/sub90%. Physiological stability was compared between nursing cares and neurobehavioural assessments using linear (for continuous outcomes) and logistic (HR instability and oxygen desaturation) regression. Results Compared with clustered nursing cares HR was lower (mean difference ?5.9 bpm; 95% CI ?6.5 to 5.3; P0.001) and oxygen saturation higher (mean difference 2.4%; 95%?CI 2.1% to 2.6%; P0.001) during standardised neurobehavioural assessments. Compared with clustered nursing cares neurobehavioural assessments were also associated with reduced odds of tachycardia (OR 0.44, 95%?CI 0.22 to 0.86), HR instability (OR 0.43, 95%?CI 0.22 to 0.85) and oxygen desaturation (OR 0.43, 95%?CI 0.26 to 0.70). Conclusions Standardised neurobehavioural assessments are associated with less physiological stress than clustered nursing cares in infants aged 29–32 weeks’ postmenstrual age, and are therefore possible without causing undue physiological disturbance in medically stable infants.