SynthesisFrontiers in psychology2026
Effects of parent-administered massage-based multimodal interventions on health outcomes in preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Parent-administered massage-based interventions are increasingly used in family-centered care for preterm infants, but their effects across infant and parental outcomes remain uncertain. Objective: To systematically evaluate the effects of parent-administered massage-based interventions on growth, feeding, hospitalization, neurodevelopmental, and parental psychological outcomes in preterm infants. Methods: We conducted a PRISMA 2020-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from inception to 26 May 2026. Eligible studies compared parent-administered massage alone or combined with tactile, kinesthetic, oral, or other developmental sensory components against routine care or non-massage controls. Random-effects models with restricted maximum-likelihood estimation were used. Parental psychological outcomes were synthesized narratively because of substantial heterogeneity. Risk of bias was assessed with RoB 2, and certainty of evidence with GRADE. Results: Twenty-four randomized controlled trials were included. Moderate-certainty evidence indicated that massage-based interventions were associated with higher odds of breastfeeding or human-milk feeding at discharge (OR 5.42, 95% CI 2.44-11.94), shorter time to full oral feeding (MD -2.04 days, 95% CI -3.95 to -0.13), and shorter hospital length of stay (MD -4.68 days, 95% CI -7.79 to -1.57). Weight-gain velocity was greater in the primary meta-analysis (MD 5.55 g/day, 95% CI 1.71-9.38), but certainty was low, heterogeneity was very high (I Conclusion: Moderate-certainty evidence suggests that parent-administered massage-based interventions may improve selected feeding outcomes and reduce hospital length of stay in preterm or low-birth-weight infants. The effect on weight-gain velocity remains uncertain because of very high heterogeneity, low certainty of evidence, and possible small-study effects. However, many interventions were multimodal and heterogeneity was substantial; therefore, the findings should be interpreted as effects of parent-delivered developmental-care interventions that include massage rather than massage alone, and the independent effect of massage requires confirmation. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420261435482, identifier CRD420261435482.
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