The Effects of Vestibular Stimulations on Neurodevelopment, Growth and Vital Signs of Preterm Infants: A Systematic Review

Background: The purpose of the present study was to systematically review all published studies investigating the effects of only vestibular interventions on neurodevelopment, growth and vital signs in preterm infants (PIs).Method: PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL and EMBASE databases were searched to find relevant studies published from 1980 and June 2022. In addition, reference lists of the articles were also checked.Results: Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria. Fifteen of these articles reported studies conducted on stable preterm infants and five on unstable ones. Waterbed, rocking, hammock, air mattress and Vestibu_Guide stimulations were applied in eight, four, six, one, and one study, respectively. Twelve studies evaluated neurobehavioral development, five studies assessed neuromotor development, five studies evaluated the growth and fifteen studies assessed the vital signs in preterm infants using vestibular stimulations.Conclusions: The results indicate that vestibular stimulations may improve neurodevelopment, growth and vital signs in premature infants, but there are still some disagreements among researchers, and further research is recommended

Art therapy and marital satisfaction of children with autism spectrum disorder's parents

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the family-centered art therapy program in marital satisfaction of children with autism spectrum disorder's parents. In this applied experimental study the pre-test-posttest with follow-up and control group design was used. In this study, 20 children with autism spectrum disorder and their parents were selected by the available sampling method and then, they were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups. The family-centered art therapy program was applied just for the experimental group. And for collecting the data, the Afrooz Marital Satisfaction Scale was used at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Data were analyzed by the ANCOVA and the repeated measures; in addition, there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups. In conjunction with the marital Satisfaction among fathers and mother in the alpha level = 0.05, there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. But a repeated measures analysis did not show any significant difference. The findings of this study showed that the family-centered art therapy program cannot be effective in the marital satisfaction of the Children with autism spectrum disorder’s Mothers and Fathers in the long-term, but has been effective just in the short period

Factors influencing the attendance of preterm infants to neonatal follow up and early intervention services following discharge from NICU during first year of life in Iran

AbstractPurpose:  Determining maternal and infantile factors associated with the number of attending times of preterm infants to Neonatal Follow up and Early Intervention services during one year after discharge from neonatal intensive care unit.Method: This study used data from a cohort of preterm infants born in Arash Women’s Hospital and consecutively admitted to the NICU at the same hospital from April 2014 to February 2015.Data was gathered by completing a questionnaire administered via phone. Data included mother’s age, education, type of pregnancy, history of abortion, history of premature birth, self-reported post-partum depression and the number of children, as well as infant’s gender, birth weight, gestational age, length of stay in the NICU, living area, twin or triplet birth, number of siblings, and the child rank. Number of attending times to services was recorded. Result: After multivariate analysis, shorter length of stay in the NICU, lower maternal education, more number of children, self-declared lack of awareness about Neonatal Follow up and Early Intervention services, and self-reported lack of referral by a physician were the only factors that continued to be significantly correlated, and in fact, the truly influential ones associated with number of attending times.Conclusion: Results of this study have defined some predictors of poor follow up and early intervention service utilization in a high-risk group of infants following NICU discharge, which is suggested to be addressed by policymakers to overcome possible barriers to attendance.