Feasibility Case Series of Environment and Sleep in Infants With Congenital Heart Disease.
Laura Beth Kalvas, Tondi M Harrison
PMID 32604155WHAT IT FOUND
Three infants after congenital heart surgery had sound exposure above the newborn limit averaging 3.75 hours per day and sleep episodes averaging 12.31 minutes.
Key findings
01Sound exposure rose above the recommended maximum of 45 dBA in 75.42% of data collection hours, and infants averaged 3.75 hours of excessive sound exposure per day.
02Average total sleep time was 18.52 hours per day, but individual sleep episodes averaged 12.31 minutes, and infants averaged 70.33 arousals per day.
03Continuous environmental data collection was generally acceptable and retained all three infants, but 48.99% of data were missing or uninterpretable.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only three infants were studied, so the findings cannot show what is typical for all infants with congenital heart disease. 48.99% of data were missing or uninterpretable, and device malfunctions, programming errors, battery loss, and data collection timing problems affected data quality. Light data were usable only for Infant 3 because a malfunctioning light meter affected Infants 1 and 2. Devices recorded at different intervals, the dosimeter did not record time, and data collection began at varying times, so comparison across days was difficult. The study was not designed to test whether reducing sound or light improves sleep or long-term health. More than half of families approached declined, mainly because the larger pilot required 24-hour video monitoring, which may limit generalisability of recruitment.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The article also describes the pilot as un-funded.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that changing sound or light levels improves infant outcomes. This was a three-infant case series with 48.99% of data missing or uninterpretable, and it did not test an intervention.