Abstract
Despite clinical improvements in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), prematurity keeps causing several comorbidities. To enhance the management of such conditions, in previous studies we devised the Neonatal Assessment Manual scorE (NAME) model, a structured touch-based assessment that aims to evaluate how newborns respond to gentle touch-based stimuli. The present study aimed to begin assessing the NAME interrater reliability and specific agreements. At the “Vittore Buzzi” Pediatric Hospital NICU ward in Milan, Italy, we enrolled 144 newborns, 85 male and 59 female, with a mean age of 35.9 weeks (±4.1) and a weight of 2,055.3 g (±750.6). Two experienced manual professionals performed the NAME procedure on all the infants. Regarding the total sample and the analysis by sex, we found moderate and statistically significant results for the interrater reliability (p < 0.001) and the specific agreements (p < 0.05), in particular for the “Marginal” score. Furthermore, interrater reliability significantly (p < 0.05) increased as age and weight increased, whereas there was an almost constant moderate and significant (p < 0.05) agreement especially for the “Marginal” score. Therefore, we found preliminary results showing that the NAME could be a reliable diagnostic tool for assessing the newborns' general condition.
Highlights
The improvement in specific medical care helped minimize the chance of pathological complications in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs)
The categorical score is converted to a numerical score that consists of a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 9: in particular, the numerical score ranges from 1 to 3 for “Bad,” from 4 to 6 for “Marginal,” and from 7 to 9 for “Good.” The categorical score, which is the Neonatal Assessment Manual scorE (NAME) main score, aims to communicate quickly the newborns’ actual conditions, whereas the numerical score aims to monitor how the newborns’ general conditions change with time
Considering the analysis stratified by sex, we found a moderate and statistically significant (p < 0.001) interrater reliability for the numerical NAME for both female (0.53, confidence interval (CI) 0.31–0.74) and male newborns (0.59, CI 0.41–0.76), but the specific agreements for the categorical NAME differed between the two subgroups
Summary
The improvement in specific medical care helped minimize the chance of pathological complications in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Prematurity remains widespread worldwide: it has a global incidence of about 11% but is estimated to be substantially higher in developing countries [2] and brings about several comorbidities including respiratory distress, necrotizing enterocolitis, cardiovascular diseases, neurodevelopmental delay, reduced growth, sepsis, hearing, and visual impairments [3]. To enhance the management of such critical conditions, researchers are investigating all the factors that could improve the premature infants’ health: in particular, growing attention has been directed toward touch-related procedures [4, 5]. In NICUs, nurses and doctors handle and touch premature babies about a 100 times a day while performing routine-care procedures, including feeding, weighting, applying tubes, changing diapers, performing heel sticks, venipunctures, palliative care procedures, and managing emergencies [4, 6].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
