The Effects of Vestibular Stimulations on Neurodevelopment, Growth and Vital Signs of Preterm Infants: A Systematic Review

The purpose of the present study was to systematically review all published studies investigating the effects of only vestibular interventions on neurodevelopment, growth and vital signs in preterm infants (PIs).

PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL and EMBASE databases were searched to find relevant studies published from 1980 and June 2022. In addition, reference lists of the articles were also checked.

Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria. Fifteen of these articles reported studies conducted on stable preterm infants and five on unstable ones. Waterbed, rocking, hammock, air mattress and Vestibu_Guide stimulations were applied in eight, four, six, one, and one study, respectively. Twelve studies evaluated neurobehavioral development, five studies assessed neuromotor development, five studies evaluated the growth and fifteen studies assessed the vital signs in preterm infants using vestibular stimulations.

The results indicate that vestibular stimulations may improve neurodevelopment, growth and vital signs in premature infants, but there are still some disagreements among researchers, and further research is recommended.