The effect of multisensory stimulation on weight gain in premature infants admitted to the intensive care unit: A clinical trial study

Introduction. Premature infants undergo a lot of stressful procedures during care and treatment procedure, which may lead to weight changes. Multisensory stimulation is a broad classification of interventions designed to improve the developmental and physiological outcomes of preterm infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of multisensory stimuli on weight gain in preterm infants admitted to the NICU. Materials and methods. This study was a two-group randomized controlled trial (multisensory stimulation and control group). Forty preterm infants admitted to the NICU who met the inclusion criteria were selected. The intervention method was a multisensory stimulation program including auditory stimulation, tactile stimulation, visual stimulation and vestibular stimulation, which were performed by the researcher for 12 min (each stimulation lasting for 3 min). The infant nutrition was monitored and recorded during the intervention and the infant’s weight was measured after changing diapers every morning for a 7 days. It was conducted in the two groups using a calibrated scale of confirmed validity and reliability. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software, paired t-test and independent t-test. Results. Based on the findings of the present study, an upturn was observed in weight gain of preterm infants as a result of multisensory intervention. This indicates that the intervention improves weight gain in premature infants. Conclusions. Since premature infants are usually hospitalized in the NICU for a long time due to their low weight and poor physical condition, they are mostly cared by nurses. Hence, considering its positive outcomes, besides specialized care, this effective and very low cost method could be used by nurses to promote weight gain and early discharge of preterm infants