. Ria Ganguly; . Lipilekha Patnaik; . Jagdish Sahoo; . Sumitra Pattanaik; . Trilochan Sahu
Volume 10, Issue 10 , October 2020, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
BACKGROUND: An infant admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a potentiallystressful event for parents. Severe stress is experienced by parents, affecting their mental ...
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BACKGROUND: An infant admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a potentiallystressful event for parents. Severe stress is experienced by parents, affecting their mental healthand relationship, and infants’ development. The current study aims to assess the stress levels amongparents of neonates admitted to NICU and to identify the factors influencing their stress levels.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross‑sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospitalof Eastern India over 2 months. Stress levels were assessed using Parental Stressor Scale: NICUquestionnaire among 100 NICU parents (mother or father) with more than 24 h of admission. Stresswas quantified using the Likert scale. The statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS software.RESULTS: In this study, 60.8% parents experienced severe and extreme stress level for overallstress. The mean for overall stress experienced was 3.71 ± 0.70. There was no significant differencein overall stress between father and mother (P = 0.65). The highest levels of stress experienced werein sight and sound subscale (3.23 ± 0.41) followed by relationship with the baby and parental role,”i.e., 2.46 30. There was no significant association in overall stress score with maternal age, parity,education level, previous baby being admitted to the NICU (P > 0.05). Stress in sight and sounddomain was statistically significantly higher (P = 0.009) among parents of babies with stay of ≤7 days.CONCLUSION: These results support wider use in research and clinical practice to identify parentalstress. Interventions can be developed to ameliorate its negative effects on individual, interpersonal,and societal levels. The stress score was not significantly different between fathers and mothers ofneonates admitted to NICU and the length of stay was significantly associated with sight and sounddomain. Appropriate counseling should be targeted toward both parents. Future intervention studiesshould be planned to decrease the stress level among parents.