Factors associated with parental stress in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the stress-related factors of parents of newborns hospitalized in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study developed with 204 parents present in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. For data collection, we used an instrument to characterize participants and the Brazilian version of the Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: The sociodemographic variables that were associated with higher levels of stress were sex, previous experience with neonatal unit, education and religion. And the clinical variables of newborns were hospitalization unit, respiratory and intravenous therapies and previous surgical procedure. Conclusion: Female participants, who had no previous experience with a neonatal unit, with higher education and religion, had higher levels of stress, as well as those who had their children hospitalized in the high-risk unit, with respiratory support, use of two intravenous devices and with previous history of surgical procedure.