Effect of oral sucrose in alleviating pain in preterm infants

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of oral sucrose in alleviating pain among preterm infants, (2) identify the association between preterm infant’s weight at time of intervention, maternal age, and pain intensity, and (3) investigate the difference in pain intensity between the groups of the preterm infant’s gender. The researcher used the an interventional, randomized controlled trial design used to achieve the purpose of the study, the study was conducted at Medical City Complex/ Children Welfare Teaching Hospital/ NICU in Baghdad City throughout the period May 1^st, 2022 to November 4^th, 2022. Simple random sample of (42) preterm infants in NICU was selected into two groups, the nesting group 21 preterm infants and the control group 21 preterm infants. The scale of the study was the Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised (PIPP-R) to assess pain, salivary cortisol used as indicator of pain. The study results exhibited that there were statistically significant differences in the PIPP-R and cortisol values for preterm infants in the oral sucrose group over time; the PIPP-R score for preterm infants in the oral sucrose group was noticeably less than that of the control group. The younger the mother at the oral sucrose group, the more intense the pain that her preterm infant can experience on heel stick procedure. The study concluded that oral sucrose was efficacious in alleviating the pain intensity and minimizing the salivary cortisol for the preterm infants after heel stick procedure than control group.