Parental visitation patterns during neonatal intensive care and neurodevelopment at 18 months' corrected age in very low birth weight infants.

BACKGROUND

Very low birth weight (VLBW) infants are at risk for adverse neurodevelopment. Although parental involvement during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization might influence development, parental visitation patterns have rarely been quantified.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study included infants born at <30 weeks' gestation (birth weight < 1500 g). Data on parental visitation patterns, specifically frequency (days/week) and visitation time (hours/week), were collected from electronic entry/exit card records throughout hospitalization and calculated as weekly indices using median values across the entire period. Neurodevelopment was assessed by the developmental quotient (DQ) of the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development at 18 months' corrected age.

RESULTS

Fifty-seven infants were included (median gestational age, 27.1 weeks; median birth weight, 934 g). The median weekly visitation frequencies for fathers and mothers were 3 (interquartile range [IQR], 2-4) and 6 (IQR, 4-7) days/week, respectively. The median weekly visitation times were 6.0 (IQR, 2.9-8.7) and 12.9 (IQR, 10.1-20.0) hours/week, respectively. The presence of siblings was associated with shorter parental visitation time. In multivariable analyses, the DQ was positively associated with maternal visitation time (adjusted β, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.07-0.88).

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal presence during NICU hospitalization, quantified by visitation time, was associated with a higher developmental quotient at 18 months' corrected age.