Life After The NICU: A Comparative EMA Study (V1_18/02/2022)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Life After The NICU: A Comparative Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.
IRAS ID
306822
Contact name
Matthias Schwannauer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Edinburgh
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study is interested in how parents mental health (PMH) and well-being may influence the quality of their relationship with their infant. This study will include a sample of parents whose infant has experienced an admission to a Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)/Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU), and a sample of parents who have not experienced an admission, and are all currently raising an infant aged one years old or under. To measure PMH and well-being and the quality of the parent-infant relationship, this study will use a unique method that has not been used with parents of premature/unwell babies previously. This method is known as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). This method enables the researchers to monitor parents mental health and the quality of their relationship with their infant throughout the day. By using a smartphone app that will prompt participants to answer very short questionnaires (60-90 seconds to complete), up to 8 times a day over the course of a week. These short questionnaires will ask participants about their daily mood & emotions, thoughts & feelings about their infant, and how they are coping, how supported they feel by those around them; in order to understand some of the internal and external factors that might influence how PMH may influence the quality of their relationship with their infant. This study is also interested in how the length of stay and parental stress associated with the admission to the NICU/SCBU may predict PMH & well-being and the quality of the parent-infant relationship. This study will compare the two samples of parents to gain a better understanding of the impact of NICU/SCBU admissions on parents MH.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NW/0099
Date of REC Opinion
27 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion