Types, evidence, and resources of interventions focused on improving the psychosocial wellbeing of parents of premature/sick infants: A scoping review

Abstract

Background: Parents of infants born premature and/or sick and who require neonatal care are at risk of poor mental health. Currently there is no comprehensive knowledge about interventions (i.e. types, evidence, resources) that have been exclusively designed to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of this population group.
Purpose: To undertake a systematic scoping review of interventions focused on improving the psychosocial wellbeing of parents of sick/premature infants who required neonatal care to identify the: a) types of interventions, b) evidence of the interventions; and c) level of resources required to deliver the interventions.
Search strategy: Following an initial pilot search, we searched seven databases (Medline, CINAHL, PsychInfo, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science and Global Index), reviewed references and followed up key authors.
Results: From 10516 hits, 38 papers met the inclusion criteria (36 different studies/interventions). Studies were categorised into creative oriented (11), group or peer support (4), relaxation or mindfulness (3), spiritual/religious (4), psychotherapeutic-based (11), and ‘other’ (3) (e.g. sleep, acupuncture). Most interventions had been undertaken in high-income settings with mothers and required varying levels of resources both within and between the different intervention types. While some interventions were effective, there was high heterogeneity with similar interventions using different designs, protocols and outcomes. Most intervention types included studies that highlighted what parents valued, e.g. self-care, relaxation, social opportunities.
Implications for research: Evidence highlights a wide range of potential interventions for nursing and other specialist staff to consider and offers insights into potential mechanisms of effectiveness to underpin future intervention design.