Physiologic and behavioral effects of gentle human touch on preterm infants

The purpose of this study was tot evaluate the effects of a gentle human to uch (GHT) intervention provided to 42 preterm infants (27-33 weeks gestatio nal age), for 10 min, three times daily for 10 days. There was no significa nt difference in mean HR levels or in percent of abnormal heart rate (HR) o r O-2 saturation comparing 10-min baseline (B), GHT, and 10-min post-touch (PT) phases. There were significantly lower levels of active sleep, motor a ctivity, and behavioral distress during GHT compared to B and P phases. The re were no differences among the 42 infants in the GHT group and 42 infants in a randomly assigned control group on any outcome variable including wei ght gain, morbidity status, or behavioral organization. The findings sugges t that GHT generally is a safe and soothing type of touch to provide to you ng preterm infants, but that individual infant responses to touch need to b e continuously monitored by NICU staff and pet rents, (C) 2000 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.