Effects of Yakson Therapeutic Touch on the Behavioral Response of Premature Infants

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Due to incomplete physical development, premature infants are susceptible to various sources of stress. Therapeutic touch is considered as an effective method to reduce stress in neonates. This study aimed to compare the effects of Yakson therapeutic touch and routine nursing care on the behavioral response of premature infants. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 60 premature infants aged 26-34 weeks, admitted at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Afzalipour Hospital of Kerman, Iran. Subjects were randomly selected by minimization and equally divided into two groups of intervention and control (N=30). Infants in the intervention group received Yakson massage therapy for 5 days, twice daily for 15 minutes, and infants in the control group received routine care. Behavioral responses of infants, including the status of sleep, waking and restlessness, were evaluated using Anderson Behavioral State Scale (ABSS) before and after intervention. FINDINGS: In this study, mean scores of ABSS in preterm infants of the intervention and control groups was 4.83±0.14 and 10.63±0.14, respectively. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the scores of behavioral response after the intervention between the groups (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, increased scores of sleep status in the infants of the Yakson therapy group indicated that this method could be effective in the provision of nursing care for premature infants admitted at the NICU.