Parents' Acute Illnesses, Hospitalizations, and Medication Changes During the Difficult First Year After Infant or Child NICU/PICU Death.
Dorothy Brooten, JoAnne M Youngblut, Carmen Caicedo and 3 others
PMID 27852818WHAT IT FOUND
After an infant or child died in the NICU/PICU, parents reported acute illnesses, hospitalizations, and medication changes, with peaks in the first month and around the first anniversary.
Key findings
01Parents reported 404 acute illnesses and 98 hospitalizations in the 13 months after an infant or child died in the NICU or PICU.
02Mothers reported 300 acute illnesses, with 77 in month 1 and 229 by 6 months.
0341 mothers reported 76 medication changes, with 31 by 3 months and 51 by 6 months.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Parent health events were self-reported in interviews, not confirmed from medical records. The paper did not compare these parents with parents whose children did not die, so it cannot show that the child's death caused the reported illnesses, hospitalizations, or medication changes. Only 73 fathers participated, and their hospitalizations and medication changes were too few to test across racial/ethnic groups. The sample was South Florida and mostly Hispanic or black non-Hispanic, and many parents were educated and partnered, so results may not apply to other groups. Monthly data were reconstructed from interviews at 1, 3, 6, and 13 months, not recorded prospectively every month.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 404 acute illnesses and 98 hospitalizations as proof that the child's death caused them. The study did not compare these parents with parents whose children did not die, and it relied on parent report. It also does not show that bereavement support reduces these events.