Supportive Nursing Care Intervention for Handling Depression and Anxiety Among Mothers of Neonates Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU): A Meta-Analysis.
Xiaohua Zhu, Lijuan Fan
PMID 39924574WHAT IT FOUND
Supportive nursing care in the NICU lowered mothers' depression scores.
Anxiety symptoms also appeared lower, but the anxiety evidence is very low and should not be relied on alone.
Key findings
01Across 11 studies with 779 participants, supportive nursing care lowered maternal depression scores compared with usual care.
02Across 13 studies with 2405 participants, supportive nursing care lowered maternal anxiety scores, but high heterogeneity and publication bias made this evidence very low.
03The depression result changed when individual studies were removed, while the anxiety result was not dependent on any single study.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Seven of 18 trials were rated high risk of bias and 11 had some concerns. The anxiety estimate was very low certainty because studies varied widely, with 91.1% of variation not due to chance, and publication bias was present. The depression estimate changed when individual studies were removed, so it may depend on particular trials. The interventions were not uniform, including education, psychological support, digital resources, relaxation and family integrated programmes, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Only English randomised trials up to December 2023 were included.
Declared interests
The authors reported nothing to report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the anxiety reduction as established evidence. The anxiety estimate was downgraded to very low because studies varied widely and publication bias was present.