Early discharge of infants with tube feeding not linked to parental distress

Early discharge of very preterm infants with home nasogastric tube (NGT) feeding does not appear to increase psychological distress among parents both at discharge and at 3 months corrected age (CA), suggests a study.

Depression and anxiety scores at discharge did not significantly differ between parents of infants discharged with and without NGT feeding.

At 3 months CA, mothers of infants discharged on full oral feeding showed higher depression (4.95 vs 3.18; p≤0.01) and anxiety scores (6.42 vs 4.79; p=0.04) than those of infants discharged with NGT feeding. They also had more frequent clinically significant depression scores (23.53 percent vs 10.45 percent; p=0.04).

Likewise, fathers in the nontube-feeding group had higher depression scores at 3 months CA (4.78 vs 3.48; p=0.04). A trend toward a greater proportion showing clinically significant depression scores was observed (24.14 percent vs 13.11 percent; p=0.12).

“Across the outcomes, parental distress tended to be lower at 3 months CA with NGT feeding at discharge,” the researchers said. “However, as no NGT × time interaction was statistically significant after correction for multiple testing, these group differences should be interpreted as exploratory in nature.”

A total of 238 preterm infants with a birth weight ≤1,500 g and/or a postmenstrual age ≤32 weeks were included in this prospective cohort study conducted at a German tertiary perinatal centre between October 2020 and May 2024. Of these, 131 were discharged with full oral feeding and 107 with NGT feeding.

The researchers assessed depression and anxiety symptoms in mothers and fathers using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) at discharge and at 3 months CA. Two hundred one parent‒infant dyads were included in the analysis. Overall, 155 mothers and 135 fathers completed HADS-D assessments at discharge and 121 mothers and 119 fathers at 3 months CA.