Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden.
Early Hum Dev. 2012 Jul;88(7):575-81. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.12.033. Epub 2012 Jan 28.
Parental involvement in the care of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) is common, but little is known about the effect on stress responses in mothers and infants.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of family-centered care on salivary cortisol reactivity in mothers and preterm infants and the correlation between the mothers' and the preterm infants' salivary cortisol levels.
This study is part of a randomized controlled trial conducted at two level-II NICUs, including Family Care (FC), where parents were able to stay 24h/day from admission to discharge, and Standard Care (SC). To investigate the cortisol response, saliva was collected from 289 preterm infants and their mothers before and after a diaper change at the time of discharge.
No significant differences were found between the two groups in salivary cortisol reactivity, either in mothers or in infants. The results revealed a correlation between preterm infants' and their mothers' baseline and response cortisol in the FC group: r=0.31 (p=0.001) and r=0.24 (p=0.01), respectively. Such correlation was not observed in the SC group: r=0.14 (p=0.14) and r=0.18 (p=0.07), respectively.
Family-centered care had no effect on salivary cortisol reactivity during diaper change. However, sharing the same environment may increase the concordance between preterm infants' and their mothers' salivary cortisol levels.
父母参与新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）中早产儿的护理很常见，但对于这对母婴应激反应的影响知之甚少。
本研究旨在评估以家庭为中心的护理对母亲和早产儿唾液皮质醇反应的影响，以及母亲和早产儿唾液皮质醇水平之间的相关性。
该研究是在两家二级新生儿重症监护病房进行的一项随机对照试验的一部分，包括家庭护理（FC），父母可以从入院到出院 24 小时入住，以及标准护理（SC）。为了研究皮质醇反应，在出院时更换尿布前后，从 289 名早产儿及其母亲中采集了唾液。
两组母亲和婴儿的唾液皮质醇反应均无显著差异。结果显示，FC 组早产儿及其母亲的基础皮质醇和反应皮质醇之间存在相关性：r=0.31（p=0.001）和 r=0.24（p=0.01）。在 SC 组中未观察到这种相关性：r=0.14（p=0.14）和 r=0.18（p=0.07）。
以家庭为中心的护理对更换尿布时的唾液皮质醇反应没有影响。然而，共享相同的环境可能会增加早产儿及其母亲唾液皮质醇水平的一致性。
