• Xiaomei Cong, Jing Wu, Dorothy Vittner, Wanli Xu, Naveed Hussain, Shari Galvin, Megan Fitzsimons, Jacqueline M McGrath, and Wendy A Henderson.
• School of Nursing, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States; Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT, United States; School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT, United States. Electronic address: xiaomei.cong@uconn.edu.
• Early Hum. Dev. 2017 May 1; 108: 9-16.

BackgroundVulnerable preterm infants experience repeated and prolonged pain/stress stimulation during a critical period in their development while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The contribution of cumulative pain/stressors to altered neurodevelopment remains unclear. The study purpose was to investigate the impact of early life painful/stressful experiences on neurobehavioral outcomes of preterm infants in the NICU.MethodsA prospective exploratory study was conducted with fifty preterm infants (28 0/7-32 6/7weeks gestational age) recruited at birth and followed for four weeks. Cumulative pain/stressors (NICU Infant Stressor Scale) were measured daily and neurodevelopmental outcomes (NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale) were examined at 36-37weeks post-menstrual age. Data analyses were conducted on the distribution of pain/stressors experienced over time and the linkages among pain/stressors and neurobehavioral outcomes.ResultsPreterm infants experienced a high degree of pain/stressors in the NICU, both in numbers of daily acute events (22.97±2.30 procedures) and cumulative times of chronic/stressful exposure (42.59±15.02h). Both acute and chronic pain/stress experienced during early life significantly contributed to the neurobehavioral outcomes, particularly in stress/abstinence (p<0.05) and habituation responses (p<0.01), meanwhile, direct breastfeeding and skin-to-skin holding were also significantly associated with habituation (p<0.01-0.05).ConclusionUnderstanding mechanisms by which early life experience alters neurodevelopment will assist clinicians in developing targeted neuroprotective strategies and individualized interventions to improve infant developmental outcomes.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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