title: Four Measures of Change in Physiologic State During the Feeding Period of Very Premature Infants.
abstract: Precise assessment of infants' ability to regulate feeding challenges requires modeling of physiologic values across intervals of the feeding period without smoothing too much of the data stream. Using a subset of data from a study of physiologic stability and feeding performance in very preterm (≤30 weeks' gestational age) infants fed in two different feeding positions, this exploratory study compared mean heart rate (HR) and its coefficient of variation sampled during the feeding period using four methods: (1) dividing the feeding period into three equal intervals; (2) extracting 2-min intervals from the initial, middle, and final third of the feeding period; (3) using successive 2-min intervals during the first 6 min of feeding; and (4) using successive 2-min intervals during the entire feeding period. Power analysis simulation was conducted with varying numbers of subjects to determine the method that requires the least number of subjects to detect a position effect for change in HR across time with 80% power. Different patterns of HR change across the feeding period were observed across the methods, which suggest potential advantages and disadvantages of each method. Among the four methods, using the first 6 min of the feeding period required the fewest subjects to detect significant differences in changes in HR across time between the feeding positions.
authors.affiliation: Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, NC, USA jinhee.park@duke.edu.
authors.forename: Jinhee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thoyre
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Knafl
mesh_terms: D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D062071:Infant, Extremely Premature; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods
keywords: oral feeding; physiologic state; preterm infant