The goal of this research is to develop and pilot the NICU-2-Home service, a health information technology (IT) concept centered on a smart phone app. NICU-2-Home will provide support to parents of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants as they transition from the NICU to their homes and eventually establish a medical home with the infant's pediatrician. Once the app is developed, we will conduct a feasibility study with randomization to pilot test the ability of NICU-2-Home app to (a) improve parent's self-efficacy and confidence in caring for their VLBW infant, (b) decrease parental stress, and (c) enhance involvement with their VLBW infants compared to controls.
After 2-3 months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), mothers and fathers of Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants face discharge home with trepidation. Having a VLBW infant that has survived to discharge, these parents now must perform a myriad of health care tasks once at home, yet parents often feel ill-prepared, uninformed, and unskilled to provide this care. The goal of this exploratory research is to develop and pilot the NICU-2-Home service, a health information technology (IT) concept centered on the smart phone that will be created with researchers at Motorola. NICU-2-Home will provide support to parents of VLBW infants as they transition from the NICU to their homes and eventually establish a medical home with the infant's pediatrician. Phase 1 of this research uses qualitative methods and an iterative process to design the NICU-2-Home content service that will support parents as they transition to home from the NICU through interviews with the major stakeholders: parents, neonatal physicians, neonatal staff, and community pediatricians. Phase 2 evaluates NICU-2-Home as parents are transitioning to home and includes a feasibility study with randomization to pilot test the ability of NICU-2-Home to (a) improve parent's self-efficacy and confidence in caring for their VLBW infant, (b) decrease parental stress, and (c) enhance involvement with their VLBW infants compared to controls.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
90
Prentice Women's Hospital
Chicago, Illinois, United States
saliva collection
Parents will be asked to provide saliva samples at four different days (the day prior to discharge, the day after discharge, five days after discharge, and 2 weeks after discharge) at the following three times each day: when they wake up, 30 minutes later, and at bedtime.
Time frame: 2 weeks before discharge and 2 weeks after discharge
Questionnaires to measure change from baseline in parents' distress and depression
Parents will be asked to complete a particular set of surveys depending on which study day they are on. The study days include: 2 weeks prior to discharge (baseline), the day prior to discharge, the day after discharge, five days after discharge, and 2 weeks after discharge. Parents will complete the surveys independently without consulting their partner. The survey includes parenting sense of competence scale (PSOC), revised dyadic adjustment scale (RDAS), edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS),perceived stress scale (PSS)
Time frame: 2 weeks before discharge (baseline) and 2 weeks after discharge
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