Global Survey on Newborns' HOspitalisation and Parental Experiences - the HOPE Study

NCT ID: NCT06827028

Last Updated: 2025-04-27

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

NOT_YET_RECRUITING

Total Enrollment

100 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-09-01

Study Completion Date

2027-12-31

Brief Summary

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This study aims to explore parents' experiences and emotional burdens related to their newborn's hospital stay using an online survey. Our target population consists of parents of newborns born preterm, with low birthweight, or critically ill. Particularly the presence of infant- and family-centred developmental care (IFCDC) principles as well as support through political framework conditions will be investigated.

Detailed Description

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Collaboration partners, expert working groups and their roles This project will be carried out in close collaboration with representatives of national parent organisations and professional healthcare societies. The following societies are involved as collaboration partners: ANA (African Neonatal Association), CNN (Canadian Neonatal Network), COINN (Council of International Neonatal Nurses), ESPR (European Society for Paediatric Research), NFI (NIDCAP Federation International), UENPS (Union of European Neonatal and Perinatal Societies), WHO Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Health. All collaboration partners delegate one representative that supports the Core Working Group (CWG).

The CWG, with n=27 members, and a Support Group (SG), with n=48 members, both consisting of individual multi-professional experts from all continents working in the field of maternal and newborn health, will be assembled. Both groups support the development of the questionnaire in a two-step approach, translations of the questionnaire, the recruitment of participants, data analysis, data interpretation, and publication and dissemination of results. While the CWG, will be actively involved in the initial development of the draft questionnaire, the SG will be involved for a broader review for the revision and final correction of the questionnaire in a second step.

Development of the Questionnaire For the purpose of the HOPE study, we performed a scoping review (1) to explore the available literature related to this topic and to identify the most relevant topics to be included in the questionnaire.

After this literature research, the questionnaire was drafted considering the already existing and validated EMPATHIC-N and the PICKER questionnaires (2,3), as well as the questionnaire, we previously developed to explore parents' experiences related to challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the care of their newborns (4,5). In addition, questions related to political, social and infrastructural framework conditions were included.

The online questionnaire includes single, multiple choice answer models and some open-text fields. Besides questions related to participant characteristics such as age, sex, country of location, infant birthweight, duration of hospitalisation, etc., the questionnaire includes questions related to the parents' perception of political, social and infrastructural framework conditions as experienced within their country as well as elements of neonatal care mainly involving aspects of IFCDC such as the use and support of breast/human milk and early breast feeding, skin-to-skin care (kangaroo-mother care), parental presence and involvement in the care, shared decision making, stress and pain control etc. during their hospital stay.

In order to maximise the reach and to prevent the loss of study participants due to time constraints, a multi-stage approach will be used, beginning with 47 high-priority questions (single and multiple answer options), followed by more specific second lower-priority questions (single and multiple answer options) (n=21). This first/second layer approach aims to increase the response rate for the most important questions and to keep the effort for participants with limited time resources to a minimum, while taking advantage of the motivation of participants who are willing to share the full scope of their experiences related to their baby's hospitalisation.

The questionnaire draft will be reviewed by the CGW and after having implemented necessary changes, the updated version will be shared with the larger SG for feedback and review. Both groups will ensure that the questionnaire considers the specific national perspective and that the questions are phrased. All implemented changes and the finally updated version of the questionnaire will be discussed with both groups including the representative from the collaboration partners in digital discussion meetings.

In addition, comprehensive interviews with up to 10 participants resembling the target group will be performed to elucidate other relevant topics that may have not yet been covered and need to be included.

The first questionnaire draft (in English) with included feedback from the interviews and experts and will be pre-tested by a comparable target group to receive qualitative feedback on the questionnaire per se and the phrasing.

After a potential adaptation based on data and information of the pre-testing, the questionnaire will be translated in as many different languages as feasible to overcome the linguistic barrier and facilitate participation for parents worldwide. The CWG and SG will support and review the translations. The translated questionnaire versions will be transferred into the online survey software SurveyMonkey ® and will be distributed via the expert groups, GFCNI's network, GFCNI's newsletter and social media channels via an access link.

Conditions

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Infant, Premature Infant, Low Birth Weight Parents Life Change Events Needs Assessment Anxiety Fear Stress, Psychological Uncertainty Emotions Caregiver Burden

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

RETROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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Parents/participants

Study participants are parents of newborns that are receiving or received special/intensive care starting within the first week of life and that are born on 1 January 2023 or thereafter. The cohort consists of persons with different ethnic background in different countries that voluntarily participate in the survey.

N/A, no intervention, participation in survey

Intervention Type OTHER

N/A, no intervention, participation in survey

Interventions

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N/A, no intervention, participation in survey

N/A, no intervention, participation in survey

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

Parent or caregiver of a newborn infant born on January 1, 2023, or thereafter, who received/is receiving special/intensive care starting within the first week of life such as oxygen therapy or other respiratory support, incubator treatment, intravenous infusions, treatment of (suspected) sepsis, pneumonia, necrotising enterocolitis, malformations, jaundice, nutritional/feeding problems, hypoglycemia, etc.

Exclusion Criteria

* Other family members than parents/(primary) caregivers
* Parents of newborns that did not receive special/intensive care starting within the first week of life
* Parents or caregivers of infants born before 1 January 2023
* Persons with insufficient proficiency of one of the languages of the questionnaire
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Luc Zimmermann

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Silke Mader

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Health (GFCNI)

Helmut Hummler, M.D., M.B.A.

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Health (GFCNI)

Luc Zimmermann, Professor

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Health (GFCNI)

Locations

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Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (GFCNI)

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Site Status

Countries

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Germany

Central Contacts

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Julia Hoffmann, Dr

Role: CONTACT

+49 89 89 0 83 260

Christina Tischer, Dr

Role: CONTACT

Facility Contacts

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Julia Hoffmann, Dr

Role: primary

+49 89 89 0 83 260

Christina Tischer, Dr

Role: backup

References

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Kostenzer J, Hoffmann J, von Rosenstiel-Pulver C, Walsh A, Zimmermann LJI, Mader S; COVID-19 Zero Separation Collaborative Group. Neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic - a global survey of parents' experiences regarding infant and family-centred developmental care. EClinicalMedicine. 2021 Aug 6;39:101056. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101056. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 34401688 (View on PubMed)

Kostenzer J, von Rosenstiel-Pulver C, Hoffmann J, Walsh A, Mader S, Zimmermann LJI; COVID-19 Zero Separation Collaborative Group. Parents' experiences regarding neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic: country-specific findings of a multinational survey. BMJ Open. 2022 Apr 7;12(4):e056856. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056856.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 35393317 (View on PubMed)

Sakonidou S, Kotzamanis S, Tallett A, Poots AJ, Modi N, Bell D, Gale C. Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC): a neonatal survey refined for real-time parent feedback. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2023 Jul;108(4):416-420. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548. Epub 2023 Jan 30.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 36717224 (View on PubMed)

Gill FJ, Wilson S, Aydon L, Leslie GD, Latour JM. Empowering Parents of Australian Infants and Children in Hospital: Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the EMpowerment of PArents in The Intensive Care-30-AUS Questionnaire. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2017 Nov;18(11):e506-e513. doi: 10.1097/PCC.0000000000001309.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 28906423 (View on PubMed)

Family-centered care in the NICU in a global setting : Ayse Duezenli : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. Available from: https://archive.org/details/osf-registrations-erqf7-v1

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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METC 2024-0411

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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