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Influence of H-HOPE intervention for premature infants on growth, feeding progression and length of stay during initial hospitalization

Journal of Perinatology volume 35, pages 636–641 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

To examine whether premature infants receiving the maternally administered H-HOPE (Hospital to Home Transition—Optimizing Premature Infant’s Environment) intervention had more rapid weight gain and growth, improved feeding progression and reduced length of hospital stay, compared with controls.

Study Design:

Premature infants born at 29–34 weeks gestational age and their mothers with at least two social-environmental risk factors were randomly assigned to H-HOPE intervention (n=88) or an attention control (n=94) groups. H-HOPE consists of a 15-min multisensory intervention (Auditory, Tactile, Visual and Vestibular stimuli) performed twice daily prior to feeding plus maternal participatory guidance on preterm infant behavioral cues.

Result:

H-HOPE group infants gained weight more rapidly over time than infants in the control group and grew in length more rapidly than control infants, especially during the latter part of the hospital stay.

Conclusion:

For healthy preterm infants, the H-HOPE intervention appears to improve weight gain and length over time from birth to hospital discharge.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Nursing Research, Grant 1 R01 HD050738-01A2 and the Harris Foundation to the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing. We sincerely thank all the infants and their mothers who participated in this project. There was no honorarium, grant or other form of payment given to anyone to produce the manuscript. The authors wrote the first draft of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    R C White-Traut, J C Yoder & K F Norr

  2. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Children’s Research Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    R C White-Traut

  3. Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    K M Rankin & L Liu

  4. Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    R Vasa

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    R Vasa

  6. Sinai Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    V Geraldo

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  1. R C White-Traut
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Correspondence to R C White-Traut.

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White-Traut, R., Rankin, K., Yoder, J. et al. Influence of H-HOPE intervention for premature infants on growth, feeding progression and length of stay during initial hospitalization. J Perinatol 35, 636–641 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2015.11

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