Clinical Protocol & Research Process of Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention, SPIBI

• BackgroundExtremely preterm (EPT) born children are at increased risk of cognitive and neurodevelopmental impairment, neuropsychiatric disorders and academic difficulties. Parents of EPT born children are extra vulnerable for anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression and the parent-child interaction is negatively affected by prematurity. There is some evidence that early interventions have beneficial effects on neurocognitive and motor outcomes (Spittle A et al 2015). Based on a previous intervention (Verkerk G et al 2012) and adjusted to the Swedish context with 480 days paid parental leave, we created a post–discharge intervention, SPIBI, for families of EPT born children.MethodThe aim of (SPIBI) is to improve the quality of the parent-child interaction, child development and parental mental health in families with EPT born children. . SPIBI is a randomized controlled beginning at discharge and lasting until the child is 12 months corrected age. The trial design is a two arm randomized trial with four recruiting sites in Stockholm. Intervention group (target, n=65) receives 10 visits and two telephone calls from a trained interventionist and the control group (target n=65) receives treatment as usual plus an extended follow-up program. The SPIBI-team has recruited and trained 6 multi-professional and NICU-experienced interventionists. The training takes one year (0.2 of full time) and the content was both theoretical and practical, including pilot-cases. ResultSPIBI is an ongoing research project, beginning the 1st of September 2018 and planning to end recruitment the 31st of August 2020 and finishing the home-visits in August 2021. By the end of April 2019, 33 eligible infants had been identified within the four neonatal units in Stockholm; of which 26 children approved and 7 children declined participation. At this stage, three children have dropped out of the study, because of severe social challenges and child death. Identified challenges have been social and medical vulnerability of the EPT-families, finding the optimal multi-professional balance of motoric, psychological, pedagogical and medical kernels of the intervention, ethical considerations when to ask families for participation, lack of long-term discharge-planning of the neonatal units and large geographical spread of NICUs as well as families.ConclusionIn conclusion, the protocol seem to be feasible and appreciated by parents in the target group. With regard to the small recruitment base, trials of this kind needs a long inclusion time. Since EPT-children and their parents displays a wide scope of difficulties and challenges, multi-professional cooperation is preferable, placing high demands of sensitivity, professional respect and time for long collaborative processes.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Pediatrik (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Pediatrics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

child cognitive development

child motor development

early intervention

extreme prematurity

parent-child interaction

parental mental health

self-regulation

specialpedagogik

Special Education

psykologi

Psychology

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