The Effect of Yakson Touch on Pain Control Due to Nasogastric Intubation in Premature Infants Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Taleghani Gonbad Hospital in 2019

Background & aim: Premature infants, due to incomplete physical development, are exposed to various painful procedures during care and treatment. One of the painful procedures is gavage feeding due to lack of coordination in swallowing premature infants. This study has been performed to evaluate the effect of Yakson touch on pain control of nasogastric intubation in premature infants. Methods: This clinical trial study was performed on 64 premature infants referred to Taleghani Gonbad Hospital in Golestan province in 2019. The samples that met the inclusion criteria were divided into experimental and control groups by random sampling method. Infants in the intervention group received the Yakson Touch once a day for 15 minutes and 5 consecutive days. Infants in the control group received only routine care. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and pain assessment in infants was evaluated by a neonatal-infant pain assessment tool. Data analysis was performed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods and SPSS-16 software. Results: Mean and standard deviation of pain on the first day of hospitalization was 5.24±0.71 in the control group and 5.24±0.72 in the experimental group. These values in the fifth day of hospitalization were 4.27±0.44 in control group and 3.9±0.53 in the experimental group. The results of this study with repeated measures analysis of variance showed that pain decreased over time in both groups independently. However, this reduction in pain did not show a significant difference between two groups (p=0.96). Conclusion: The findings of the present study, which was performed to determine the effect of Yakson touch on the pain of premature infants admitted to the intensive care unit, showed that the pain intensity score did not show a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Due to the difference between the results of this study and some other studies, it seems that there is a need for further studies on the effectiveness of this technique in low birth weight infants.