Impact of restrictions on parental presence in neonatal intensive care units related to coronavirus disease 2019

  1. Ashley Darcy Mahoney
  2. Robert D. White
  3. Annalyn Velasquez
  4. Tyson S. Barrett
  5. Reese H. Clark
  6. Kaashif A. Ahmad

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1038/s41372-020-0753-7
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.22.20158949: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was approved by the Methodist Healthcare Institutional Review Board, San Antonio, TX.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Analyses were performed in SPSS version 26 and R version 3.6.2.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Policy changes began in early January and hospitals rapidly adopted entry limitations throughout March 2020. The result has been a significant shift in family presence for sick infants and of the way parents experience the first phases of their newborn’s lives in the NICU environment. An additional secondary effect of COVID-19 has been delays in elective procedures and the reduction of staff in many NICUs including therapy services, lactation support, and social services -- all important for optimal outcomes. Ultimately, as health care systems attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus, new policies have led to families interacting very differently with their infants in the NICU — or not at all. These rapidly instituted changes may carry with them the risk of secondary unintended consequences [16]. In this cross-sectional survey of 277 NICUs we found widespread implementation of hospital and NICU screening measures, including decreases in NICUs allowing 24-hour parental presence (83% to 53%). Single family room NICU design may attenuate some restrictions. Private rooms make certain infection control measures easier by providing physical distancing, physical barriers, and separate air supplies [17, 18]. At baseline we found no differences in 24-hour parental presence among various NICU designs. However, we found more NICUs with single-family room design able to maintain 24-hour parental presence and interaction with babies and caregivers than open bay units (64% vs 45%). Thi...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.22.20158949v1 on medRxiv