TARGET Study- faThers And paRtners in family inteGrated carE study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating and Optimising Father/Partner Involvement in Family Integrated Care in Neonatal Units to Improve Parental Mental Health and Infant Neurodevelopmental Outcomes
IRAS ID
310533
Contact name
Narendra Aladangady
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
Background:Family integrated care (FIC) is a culture where the parents are collaborators in the care of their newborn admitted to neonatal units (NU). Mother-delivered FIC has shown improved breast feeding rates, infant survival, and reduced length of hospital stay.
Objectives: to identify how and why these barriers are perceived and the mental health impact of this premature birth and hospitalisation for the parents.
WHO? Families of babies born more than 2 months early would be considered eligible unless there are significant language barriers, critical medical conditions or transfer to a non-participating hospital.
WHERE? 1 tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (caring for the smallest and sickest newborns in the region) and 1 local neonatal unit (caring for unwell babies who are greater than 800g and do not require intensive heart or lung support) in London.
HOW? This study aims firstly to identify how and why these barriers are perceived and the mental health impact of this premature birth and hospitalisation for the parents. This will be by following families through their newborn’s hospital stay. Secondly, it will create a new FIC programme to integrate FIC into the 2 participating units and assess the impact of this compared to the baseline data. This will be done through interviews and standardised mental health questionnaires for both parents/caregivers. Patient data will be retrieved from a medical database. Recruitment will take place over 9 months for each of the baseline and post-intervention data-collection phases. Routine 2 year neurodevelopmental follow up will be examined to see if improving father-integrated care also leads to improved outcomes compared to baseline data.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/EM/0140
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion