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Updated: Jun 14, 2025
Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Moderate-To-Late Preterm Infants Benefit From the Early Collaborative Intervention: Primary Outcomes of an RCT
Ulrika Birberg Thornberg1,2, Felix-Sebastian Koch2, Charlotte Sahlén Helmer3,4
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Aim:
This study aimed to determine the longitudinal impact of the EArly Collaborative Intervention (EACI), a three-session early intervention designed to enhance parent-infant interaction, on the developmental outcomes of preterm infants born between 30 + 0 and 35 + 6 weeks of gestation.
Methods:
This randomised controlled blinded study recruited families in two neonatal intensive care units in Sweden. In this one-year follow-up, 87 infants (standard care = 37, standard care with EACI = 50) were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The primary study outcomes were cognition, receptive and expressive communication, and fine and gross motor development measured with the Bayley-III.
Results:
At one year of age (mean age 13.1 months SD = 0.64), there was a statistically significant effect in the intention-to-treat analysis on receptive communication F(1, 85) = 4.61, p = 0.035, η2 = 0.051. No statistically significant effects were found on the other Bayley-III outcome measures. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding gestational age, birth weight, gender, parents' education, or age at assessment.
Conclusion:
This new intervention indicates a small positive effect on moderate-to-late preterm infants' communication ability at one year of age. Though the attrition rate was relatively large, results are encouraging since clinical interventions supporting moderate-to-late preterm infants and parents are lacking.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02034617.
