EFFECTIVENESS OF TOUCH THERAPY ON WEIGHT GAIN AMONG PRETERM INFANTS ADMITTED IN NICU AT G.G.S MEDICAL HOSPITAL, FARIDKOT.

INTRODUCTION: A preterm infant is a baby born before 37 completed weeks of gestation. Preterm infants often have low weight at birth so birth weight is the single most important marker of adverse perinatal and neonatal outcome. So Touch therapy, tactile stimulation, stroking and flexing by the nurse or preferably by the mother provide useful tactile simulations to the baby that helps in weight gain in infant &to explore new measures to manage weight in preterm infants, this study has been done. AIM : Aim of the study to assess the effectiveness of touch therapy on weight gain among preterm infants admitted in NICU at G.G.S Medical Hospital, Faridkot. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Quantitative research approach and Quasi-experimental research design was used. Study setting includes NICU of G.G.S. Medical Hospital, Faridkot. Study population 60 preterm infants between 32 to 36 weeks of gestational age. Convenient sampling technique was used and random allocation of study subjects is done. Socio demographic data sheet to collect baseline information and a data sheet was prepared to record the weight in preterm infants using digital weighing machine. RESULTS: The results of the study revealed that the conventional care and experimental group were homogenous with respect to selected socio demographic variables. Beneficial effects of Touch therapy on weight gain among preterm infants on 14th day were found to be statistically significant at p< 0.05. In comparison of experimental and conventional care group, the mean difference in the weight was found to be 2157.67 in experimental group and 1940.33 in conventional care group. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, it is concluded that Touch therapy is found to be more effective in term of weight gain among preterm infants in experimental group as compared to conventional care group and thus can be used as a routine care for effective weight gain among preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]