Quality of life among mothers of preterm newborns in a Malaysian neonatal intensive care unit
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Keywords

quality of life
mother of preterm newborn
maternal stress
neonatal intensive care unit
nursing
Malaysia

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Ong, S. L., Soh, K. L., Hussin, E. O. D. ., Japar, S., Soh, K. G., Vorasiha, P. ., & Daud, A. (2022). Quality of life among mothers of preterm newborns in a Malaysian neonatal intensive care unit. Belitung Nursing Journal, 8(2), 93–100. https://doi.org/10.33546/bnj.1872
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Accepted for publication: 2022-01-08
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Abstract

Background: As Quality of Life (QoL) becomes progressively vital in health care services, its importance in mother and child health is of no exception too. Quality of life among mothers with a premature newborn is an issue that has led to growing concerns in the health care system. Yet, despite the knowledge about mother’s QoL being essential to family-centered planning on prematurity integrated healthcare, current evidence has been scant. 

Objective: To examine factors related to the QoL of mothers having preterm newborns hospitalized in the neonatal critical unit.

Methods: A non-probability convenience survey was used in a public hospital in Malaysia, covering 180 mothers whose preterm newborns were hospitalized into level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through the completion of a 26-questions survey of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and the 26-questions of Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS: NICU). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficients.

Result: The mean scores for mothers' quality of life were (M = 3.67, SD = 0.73) and maternal stress (M = 3.03, SD = 0.90) out of 5. A mother’s occupation was found to be the only factor associated with the quality of life among mothers who have preterm newborns admitted to the NICU. Furthermore, maternal role change was found to have a moderate negative relationship with the quality of life (r = 0.310, p = 0.05).

Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that the main factors contributing to the mother’s QoL during their preterm newborns’ NICU admission were role change-related stress. Thus, to maintain a better QoL among this group of mothers during this traumatic period, a special nursing intervention program must be implemented immediately, right after the preterm newborns’ admission, to relieve the mothers’ stress which has been proven to have a direct effect on the mothers’ QoL. The study results will alert healthcare providers, particularly neonatal nurses, on the need to support mothers psychologically in terms of role change. This is to ensure a better quality of life among mothers whose newborns were admitted to the NICU.

https://doi.org/10.33546/bnj.1872
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Supporting Agencies

Postgraduate Research Fund (PPP) PG047‐2014B, University of Malaya, Malaysia

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2022 Swee Leong Ong, Kim Lam Soh, Emni Omar Daw Hussin, Salimah Japar, Kim Geok Soh, Ponpun Vorasiha, Azlina Daud

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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Declaration of Conflicting Interest

No conflict of interest to disclose by the researchers.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to widen our genuine appreciation to the Malaysian Ministry of Health, particularly the neonatal specialists and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, for their assistance shining our compilation process. We also wish to thank all the mothers who agreed to spend their time participating in this project. Thank you to the Postgraduate Research Fund of University Malaya, Malaysia. Lastly, we wish to convey our greatest appreciation to our collaborators for their countless support. This study would not be possible without their help.

Authors’ Contributions

Study design: OSL, SKL, EH, SJ, PV; Data collection: OSL, SKL, SKG, AZ; Data analysis: OSL, EH, SKL, SJ; Manuscript writing: OSL, SKL, EH, PV, SKG; Critical revisions for important intellectual content: OSL, SKL, EH. All authors agreed with the final version of the article to be published.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.


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