Being among the few neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) nationwide to have added an evidence-based infant massage program for preterm infants and their parents as standard of care, Advocate Children’s Hospital has joined a research study to determine how effectively the program has been implemented into clinical practice and home care.
Recent research into preterm birth has led to the development of a behavioral intervention program that parents learn and perform with their preterm babies while they are in the NICU and after they go home. Known as H-HOPE, or Hospital to Home: Optimizing the Preterm Infant’s Environment, the program is one part education for parents about their preterm baby and one part multisensory massage – called Massage+.
“H-HOPE has been shown to improve a preterm baby’s language development, motor skills, growth and feeding and reduce the baby’s length of hospital stay, hospital cost and number of post-NICU doctor visits, all while encouraging parent engagement and caregiving,” said neonatologist Preetha Prazad, MD, Advocate Children’s principal investigator for the study. “While many positive program outcomes were identified throughout the testing phase, we now want to know how well it works for both families and caregivers in practice.”
Clinical site leads, Margaret Behm, APRN, Megan Christoffel, RN, and Phyllis Lawlor-Klean, APN, managed the implementation for H-HOPE to become the standard of care for preterm babies born at Advocate Children’s NICUs. The study will involve surveys of volunteer participants on how each NICU carries out the program and how it affects babies, parents and staff. Researchers will also assess the financial costs and benefits of H-HOPE.
During the H-HOPE program, parents receive three guidance sessions on preterm infancy, two during their stay at the NICU and one during their transition to home. Parents are also taught to twice a day perform Massage+, which provides developmentally appropriate stimulation (voice, touch, visual and rocking).
Study sponsor Children’s Wisconsin received funding from the National Institutes of Health to research H-HOPE, and Advocate Health Care is one of four health systems to receive a subaward to join the study.
“As a leader in preterm infant care, Advocate Children’s proudly seeks to continuously innovate and improve health outcomes for our most vulnerable patients and their families,” said Cheryl Lefaiver, PhD, RN, Director of Advocate Aurora Research Institute’s Center for Child and Family Research, which manages the study at Advocate Children’s.
Researchers plan to enroll approximately 1,300 parents, 650 preterm infants and 700 hospital personnel in the study across all sites.
To learn more about our research, visit aah.org/research.