Autonomic regulation of preterm infants is enhanced by Family Nurture Intervention (original) (raw)

2019, Developmental Psychobiology

Preterm infants have maturational delays in several neurobehavioral systems. This study assesses the impact of the Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the maturation of autonomic regulation of preterm infants. Preterm infants born at 26–34 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) were assigned to groups receiving either standard care (SC) or SC plus FNI, using a randomized controlled trial design. At two collection time points, approximately 35 weeks and 41 weeks PMA, electrocardiograms (ECG) were monitored for approximately 1 hour during sleep. Heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were quantified from the ECG. Across the two time points, the FNI group exhibited greater increases in RSA (Cohen's d = 0.35) and slope between RSA and heart rate, as a measure of vagal efficiency (Cohen's d = 0.62). These results document that FNI resulted in enhanced autonomic regulation consistent with greater maturation of cardiac function. These a...