The effect of family-centered education on the quality of life of the parents of premature infants

Abstract

BackgroundPremature infants are very vulnerable and need special care and this condition put stress on their families. In fact, hospitalization of premature infants in the ICU often leads to an emotional crisis in families, which due to the separation of the infant from the parents will lead to disruption in their family life. Material and methodsThis quasi-experimental study used a pre-test and post-test structure in order to evaluate the comparison of the effect of family-centered education on the lives of fathers and mothers of premature infants. These parents had been admitted to two public and educational hospitals in Tehran, Iran in September to December 2020. Select continuous sampling and explain the intervention method for parents (eligible) if they are willing to cooperate, three training sessions for 60 min will be held for fathers and mothers of premature infants, simultaneously. These sessions were coordinated by the educational supervisor of the hospitals in groups of 4–6 participants. The intervention content and issues the content of the training is the same and the training is done through modeling, slides and videos. Parents could also communicate with the researcher via WhatsApp for up to a month. All participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the World Health Organization Quality of Life) WHOQOL-BREF (Questionnaire before and one month after the intervention. Data analysis will be performed using SPSS software version 16 in two sections: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. ResultsThe QoL of the participants before and after the intervention was assessed and it was observed that the QoL score and also all its dimensions were higher in fathers than mothers (p < 0.001). Also, after the intervention, the QoL and all dimensions except (social function P = 0.127) and (environmental health (P = 0.098)) were significantly higher in the fathers than in the mothers (p < 0.001). It was also observed that physical health in fathers after the intervention had a significant decrease compared to before the intervention (p < 0.001). Changes in QoL and its dimensions were examined. There was an increase in score at the end of the study in both fathers and mothers, but this increase was significant in all dimensions except social performance in the mothers' group. It was more than the group of fathers (P < 0.001). Data were analyzed using SPSS v.16, independent t-test and analysis of covariance with the significance level of 0.05. ConclusionFamily-centered education especially simultaneous education of fathers and mothers improves QoL of fathers. Family-based education, especially the simultaneous education of fathers and mothers, is effective in improving the QoL.