Available online 10 October 2023

Author links open overlay panel, ABSTRACTBackground

Preterm infants who leave the intrauterine environment early are deprived of tactile stimuli. This affects the physical, emotional and social developments of infants and their physical growth parameters such as weight, height and head circumference negatively.

Aim

This research was conducted to determine the effects of massage on the development of preterm infants.

Material-Method

This research was conducted as randomized controlled research with two groups (massage-control). The infants in the intervention group received massage for 30 days. Height, weight and head circumference values of the infants were recorded on days 5, 10, 20 and 30. Amount of feeding was recorded before intervention, on day 15 after intervention and on day 30 after intervention. Discharge times of the infants were recorded according to groups.

Results

A significant difference was found in height and weight of the preterm infants on days 20 and 30 when compared with the control group. Discharge time of the infants in the massage group was found to be 10 days shorter on average when compared with the control group. Significant difference was also found between day 15 and 30 in terms of amount of feeding.

Conclusion

Massage was found to have significant effects on physical growth parameters such as height, weight and head circumference. It was found that massage increased amount of feeding and weight intake in infants and decreased discharge time. In this case, hospital cost per infant may be reduced.

Section snippetsINTRODUCTION

Despite the developments and advancements in the field of health in recent years, the number of preterm infants is gradually increasing every year. According to the most recent data of World Health Organization, it has been reported that 15 million premature babies are born every year in the world34. The high rate of preterm birth and the increase in associated morbidity emphasize that preterm birth is an important public health problem in the field of health (Álvarez‐5; Z.37). Although there

BACKGROUND

In new-borns, touching constitutes the most important structure of the interaction between the baby and the mother and the sensory-cognitive development. It has been found that the brains of preterm and new-born babies respond to gentle skin caresses in the first weeks and the regions of connection related to socio-emotional functioning are activated. It has been found that soft and gentle touches to term new-borns cause activation in posterior insular cortex. This finding showed that emotional

Research Design

This research was conducted as randomized controlled experimental research with two groups (massage-control).

Place and time of research

The research was carried out with premature babies hospitalized in neonatal intensive care unit of a training and research hospital in South-eastern Turkey between August 1 and December 31, 2022.

Population and Sample of Research

In our research, the head circumference averages of the experimental and control groups were taken as basis in Alvarez et al.'s3 study, which examined Effects of Massage Therapy and Kinesitherapy

RESULTS

50% of the babies are in the massage group and 50% are included in the control group. 50% of the babies had a gestational week of 28-32 and 50% had a gestational week of 33-37. 50% of the babies are female and 50% are male. While 51.7% of the babies were fed with breast milk, 48.3% were fed with formula. All of the babies in the study were delivered with Caesarean section (Table 1). Mean age of the mothers was found as 26.5 years. Mean number of pregnancies was 3.9, while mean number of living

DISCUSSION

Massage applied to term and preterm infants stands out as one of the oldest therapeutic methods used in the world. Premature babies that leave the intrauterine period early are exposed to many painful stimuli in the neonatal intensive care unit, they get in a stressed environment with high intensity of light and level of noise, they are separated from their parents and their routines are disrupted. However, regular massage applied to babies reduces the stress levels and pain of babies,

Conclusion and Recommendations

In our study, massage applied to preterm infants for a month allowed the infants to gain more weight in a shorter period of time and resulted in an average of ten days shorter discharge time. It was also found to have significant effect on physical growth parameters by increasing head circumference and height. On the other hand, massage was also found to increase babies’ amount of feeding. It has been found that nurses who work in neonatal intensive care unit affected physical growth parameters

Strengths and Limitations

This research has several limitations. Invasive procedures performed on babies were not standardized throughout the study. It has not been evaluated whether this situation will have an impact on the growth and development of babies, and it constitutes a limitation of the research. On the other hand, in our study, parents' viewing situations of their babies were not standardized. In this case, it can be considered as a limitation on the growth and development of babies. The most important

Acknowledgement

There is no conflict of interest between authors in this research. No financial support was received from any company or institution in the survey.

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© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.