Ong Swee Leong, Soh Kim Lam, Hussin Emni Omar Daw, Japar Salimah, Soh Kim Geok, Vorasiha Ponpun, Daud Azlina
School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, Malaysia.
Department of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Belitung Nurs J. 2022 Apr 26;8(2):93-100. doi: 10.33546/bnj.1872. eCollection 2022.
As Quality of Life (QoL) becomes progressively vital in health care services, its importance in mother and child health is of no exception too. Quality of life among mothers with a premature newborn is an issue that has led to growing concerns in the health care system. Yet, despite the knowledge about mother's QoL being essential to family-centered planning on prematurity integrated healthcare, current evidence has been scant.
To examine factors related to the QoL of mothers having preterm newborns hospitalized in the neonatal critical unit.
A non-probability convenience survey was used in a public hospital in Malaysia, covering 180 mothers whose preterm newborns were hospitalized into level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through the completion of a 26-questions survey of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and the 26-questions of Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS: NICU). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficients.
The mean scores for mothers' quality of life were ( = 3.67, = 0.73) and maternal stress ( = 3.03, = 0.90) out of 5. A mother's occupation was found to be the only factor associated with the quality of life among mothers who have preterm newborns admitted to the NICU. Furthermore, maternal role change was found to have a moderate negative relationship with the quality of life ( = 0.310, 0.05).
The findings of this study revealed that the main factors contributing to the mother's QoL during their preterm newborns' NICU admission were role change-related stress. Thus, to maintain a better QoL among this group of mothers during this traumatic period, a special nursing intervention program must be implemented immediately, right after the preterm newborns' admission, to relieve the mothers' stress which has been proven to have a direct effect on the mothers' QoL. The study results will alert healthcare providers, particularly neonatal nurses, on the need to support mothers psychologically in terms of role change. This is to ensure a better quality of life among mothers whose newborns were admitted to the NICU.
随着生活质量（QoL）在医疗保健服务中变得越来越重要，其在母婴健康中的重要性也不例外。早产新生儿母亲的生活质量是医疗保健系统中日益受到关注的一个问题。然而，尽管了解母亲的生活质量对于以家庭为中心的早产综合医疗保健规划至关重要，但目前的证据却很少。
研究与新生儿重症监护病房住院的早产新生儿母亲生活质量相关的因素。
在马来西亚的一家公立医院采用非概率便利抽样调查，通过完成世界卫生组织生活质量问卷（WHOQOL-BREF）的26个问题和新生儿重症监护病房父母压力量表（PSS：NICU）的26个问题，对180名早产新生儿在三级新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）住院的母亲进行调查。数据采用描述性统计、双变量分析和Pearson相关系数进行分析。
母亲生活质量的平均得分（满分为5分）为（=3.67，=0.73），母亲压力的平均得分（满分为5分）为（=3.03，=0.90）。发现母亲的职业是入住NICU的早产新生儿母亲生活质量的唯一相关因素。此外，发现母亲角色变化与生活质量呈中度负相关（=0.310，0.05）。
本研究结果表明，早产新生儿入住NICU期间影响母亲生活质量的主要因素是与角色变化相关的压力。因此，为了在这一创伤时期保持这组母亲更好的生活质量，必须在早产新生儿入院后立即实施一项特殊的护理干预计划，以减轻已被证明对母亲生活质量有直接影响的压力。研究结果将提醒医疗保健提供者，特别是新生儿护士，有必要在角色变化方面为母亲提供心理支持。这是为了确保入住NICU的新生儿母亲有更好的生活质量。
