Factors associated with parental stress in neonatal intensive care units: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: verify the factors associated with parental stress in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Neonatal ICU) of small municipalities. Methods: cross-sectional quantitative study, with parents of newborns admitted in the neonatal ICU in two philanthropic hospitals. The instruments used were the Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal ICU and Perceptions of Family-Centered Care - Parents. The analysis was performed according to the nature of the distribution of the variables. Results: of the 129 volunteers, 79.8% showed parental stress. The averages of stress in the domains “sights and sounds”, “baby looks and behaviors” and “alteration in the mother/father role” was observed, respectively, 1.9, 2.9 and 3.7 in Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal ICU. There was a significant association between the gender of the participants (p=0.0182) and clinical complications during the period of hospitalization (p= 0.0443) with parental stress. A difference was observed in the groups of the variable “hospitalization time to the moment of the data collection” (p= 0.0112), in the domains “respect” (p=0.0266), “collaboration” (p=0.0060) and in the total sum (p= 0.0112) of the Perceptions of Family-Centered Care - Parents scale. Conclusion: parental stress was associated with changes in the role of the mother/father; with the mothers and the occurrence of clinical complications with the baby during its hospitalization.

Keywords

• Neonatal ICU
• Newborn
• Parenting
• Psychological stress
• Professional-family relations
• Integrative health care