J Korean Acad Child Health Nurs.  2010 Oct;16(4):344-351.

Effects of a Discharge Education Program Using On-line Community for Parents of Premature Infants

• Kim JS
• Shin HS

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was done to examine effects of a discharge education program using on-line community on parenting stress, baby care confidence for mothers of premature infants and health problem of premature infants.
METHODS
Using a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, 32 participants were assigned to an experimental (17) or a control group (15). Mothers in the experimental group were introduced to the discharge education program 2 weeks before the baby was discharged. They participated in the on-line community for 4 weeks after discharge. Parenting Stress Index and Baby Care Confidence Scale were utilized for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square-test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann-Whitney U test with the SPSS program 16.0 version.
RESULTS
In the experimental group, mean scores for parenting stress were lower than for the control group (Z=-3.176, p=.001), while scores for confidence in baby care were higher than for the control group (Z=-3.195, p=.001).
CONCLUSION
Findings indicate that discharge education programs using on-line community have the positive effect of decreasing parenting stress and increasing baby care confidence for mothers and decreasing health problems for infants. Therefore utilization of the internet and online community to educate parents of premature infants is recommended.

Keyword

Premature infant; Stress; Baby care; Parenting Education

MeSH Terms

Data Collection
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Internet
Mothers
Parenting
Parents
Child Health