The effect of body status on gastroesophageal reflux after feeding among hospitalized premature infants: A randomized crossover clinical trial

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux is a common condition among premature infants, which causes problems such as reduced weight gain and prolonged length of hospital stay. Body status is an appropriate way to reduce this condition. However, there have been few studies conducted in this regard. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of body status on gastroesophageal reflux in premature infants. Methods: The present research was a crossover study conducted on premature infants with a gestational age of 33-36 weeks in Al-Zahra Hospital in Tabriz, Iran, from January to March 2015. In this clinical trial, thirty-two premature infants hospitalized in this center were selected as the sample. The initial selection of the participants was based on the simple random sampling. Then the participants were allocated to groups using randomized block procedure. Each infant was under study for 4 days. After each feeding and about two hours before the beginning of next feeding, the infants were randomly and not repeatedly put in one of the following four status for 12 hours (8 am - 8 pm) every day: facilitated fetal tucking posture in lateral position, free body posture in lateral position, facilitated fetal tucking posture in supine position, and free body posture in supine position. Then, the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux was measured in each of these statuses. SPSS software, version 21 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyze the data at significant level of P<0.05. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between facilitated fetal tucking posture in lateral position and other status (P<0.001). The incidence of gastroesophageal reflux in facilitated fetal tucking posture was lower than free body posture, but there was no statistically significant difference in this regard. Moreover, the incidence of reflux in lateral position was significantly less than those in supine position (P=0.04). Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that facilitated fetal tucking posture and lateral positioning reduced the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux in hospitalized premature infants.