THE EFFECTS OF WATERBED FLOTATION ON INDICATORS OF ENERGY EXPENDITURE--ACTIVITY LEVEL, HEART RATE, AND BEHAVIORAL STATE--IN PREMATURE INFANTS (THEOPHYLLINE, INFANT STIMULATION, VESTIBULAR).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 268
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This clinical study investigated the effects of non-oscillating waterbeds on three indexes of energy expenditure: activity level, heart rate, and behavioral state. Waterbed flotation was viewed as compensatory vestibular-proprioceptive stimulation for preterm infants who experience a great deal of this type of stimulation in utero, but are largely deprived of it in the intensive care setting. Waterbed flotation has been shown to result in benefits such as improved motility and sleep-wake behaviors. When considering activity and wakefulness within an energy balance framework for neonates, waterbed flotation was viewed as an intervention which might reduce energy expended in wakefulness and activity and channel this conserved energy into growth processes. Heart rate, a linear correlate of oxygen consumption within individual infants, was used as an indicator of energy expenditure, as were activity level and state behaviors. The purpose of the study was to determine if waterbed flotation would result in immediate effects of more sleep, and lowered activity and heart rate, thereby reducing energy expended and increasing energy available for growth.

Subjects were 22 preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit who had reached 32-36 weeks postconceptional ages. Their conditions were medically stable, but they remained in the nursery primarily to gain weight. Across a 6-day study period, infants were placed on a waterbed for 3 consecutive days and on the standard incubator mattress for 3 consecutive days, with infants serving as their own controls on and off the waterbed. The order of treatment was randomly counterbalanced among subjects. One-hour observations of activity and state occurring in conjunction with heartbeat counting were the repeated measures on each day over both treatment and control conditions.

Multiple analysis of variance for this mixed model experimental design revealed significant treatment effects (p < .02). Univariate tests for dependent measures showed that motor activity was significantly reduced while on the waterbed. Infants experienced significantly longer durations of quiet sleep, less active awake states, and fewer state changes while on the waterbed. Heart rate increased significantly when infants were taken off the waterbed.

These findings indicate that non-oscillating waterbed flotation is a simple, cost-effective intervention that results in reduced energy expenditure.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: B, page: 4822.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1986.

School code: 0227.