ReviewJournal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association2017
Enhancing sensory experiences for very preterm infants in the NICU: an integrative review.
Review in Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multisensory stimulation for promoting development and preventing morbidity in preterm infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Randomized trial evaluating sensorimotor stimulation and functional feeding in high-risk newborns: study protocol.Pediatric research · 2026Trial
- A prospective randomized crossover trial studying the effects of maternal heartbeat and voice sounds on resting energy expenditure in preterm infants.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Trial
- Impact of daily music on comfort scores in preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial.Pediatric research · 2025Trial
- Trial
- A feasibility randomized controlled trial of a NICU rehabilitation program for very low birth weight infants.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Randomized clinical trial investigating the effect of consistent, developmentally-appropriate, and evidence-based multisensory exposures in the NICU.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2021Trial
- Early maternal care restores LINE-1 methylation and enhances neurodevelopment in preterm infants.BMC medicine · 2021Trial
- Recorded music exposure and brain growth in preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Language and sound exposure across neonatal intensive care hospitalization and relationships with early outcome.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- Triangulating evidence, expertise, and maternal experience to design a gestational age-specific stimulation protocol for preterm infants in indian neonatal intensive care units.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- Health Workers' Knowledge and Practice of Developmentally Supportive Care for Premature Infants in Four Ugandan Neonatal Units: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Role of maternal sound stimulation in the NICU: improving outcomes for newborns and their families.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- From touch to triage: translating the NAME model into clinical practice for enhanced neonatal assessment.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Challenges and limitations of evaluating the efficacy of music intervention for preterm infants: auditory development, methodological heterogeneity, medical complexity, parental involvement and environmental barriers.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Description and evidence on the supporting and enhancing neonatal intensive care unit sensory experiences (SENSE) program.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Review
- Multisensory stimulation for promoting development and preventing morbidity in preterm infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Music Therapy in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Center's Experience with Program Development, Implementation, and Preliminary Outcomes.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol on the Effects of a Sensory Motor Intervention Associated with Kangaroo Skin-to-Skin Contact in Preterm Newborns.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Maternal occupational noise exposure during pregnancy and children's early language acquisition.PloS one · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveVery preterm infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) experience alterations in sensory experiences. Defining types, timing and frequency of sensory-based interventions that optimize outcomes can inform environmental modifications. The objective of this study was to conduct an integrative review on sensory-based interventions used with very preterm infants in the NICU to improve infant and parent outcomes. STUDY
designThe data sources include MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar. Studies were identified that used sensory-based interventions in the NICU with preterm infants born ⩽32 weeks gestation, were published in a peer-reviewed journal between 1995 and 2015, and measured outcomes related to infant and parent outcomes. Studies were extracted from electronic databases and hand-searched from identified reference lists.
resultsEighty-eight articles were identified (31 tactile, 12 auditory, 3 visual, 2 kinesthetic, 2 gustatory/olfactory and 37 multimodal). There was evidence to support the use of kangaroo care, music and language exposure, and multimodal interventions starting at 25 to 28 weeks postmenstrual age. These interventions were related to better infant development and lower maternal stress, but not all findings were consistent. Limitations included lack of consistent outcome measures, study quality and gaps in the literature.
conclusionsMost research identified interventions that were done for short periods of time. It is unclear what the potential is for improving outcomes if positive sensory exposures occur consistently throughout NICU hospitalization. Until more research defines appropriate sensory-based interventions to use with infants born very preterm in the NICU, information from this review can be combined with expert opinion and parent/family values to determine best practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.