Effect of Multisensory Stimulation on Heart Rate during Screening of Retinopathy of Prematurity in Preterm Infants

Background and Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening is a painful procedure that causes physiological changes in premature infants. Multisensory stimulation is a non-pharmacological analgesic method which affects physiologic measures during painful procedures. This study aimed at determining the effect of multisensory stimulation on heart rate during screening examination of premature infants for ROP. A single blind randomized clinical trial was carried out in July 2014, in which 80 premature infants in Mashhad Khatamolanbya Hospital were randomly divided into two groups. In the intervention group, multisensory stimulation was administered 15 minutes before the start of the examination while the control group received standard care. Heart rates of infants were recorded at 30 seconds intervals, before, during, and after eye examination in a researcher made check list for physiological characteristics. Data was analyzed by independent t test and repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS ver.14. The infants were 53.8% girls and 46.2% boys. The mean gestational ages of the intervention and control groups were 30.4±1.7and 30.6 ± 1.8 weeks, respectively. Significant differences were seen between the two groups in heart rate during evaluation (P<0.001). Also, there were significant changes in heart rate during the examination (P<0.001) which were found to be higher in the control group. Multisensory stimulation program leads to a small increase in heart rate, therefore, it is useful in reducing the rate of physiologic changes during ROP screening.