KangaCare Study

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  KangaCare - wireless monitoring during Kangaroo Care

• IRAS ID

  333116

• Contact name

  Don Sharkey

• Contact email

  don.sharkey@nottingham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Nottigham

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 8 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Kangaroo care or skin to skin, is part of a package of measures called Family integrated care that allow parents to be more involved in the care of their infant. Studies show kangaroo care is associated with significant benefits from reducing mortality, hospital acquired infections, shorter hospital stays, improved temperature regulation and betters neonatal parent psychological well-being.
  
  Despite the considerable positive evidence of for kangaroo care the uptake of kangaroo care is relatively limited in the UK. Barriers identified by healthcare professionals to delivering regular, quality kangaroo care are workload, lack of time, resources and suitable monitoring equipment. We have developed a new wireless, strap-based vital sign monitoring device which can be placed on the infant’s body during kangaroo care. KangaCare monitoring system (KC-MS) is capable of measuring oxygen levels, heart rate and skin temperature, potentially addressing shortcomings of current monitoring systems.

  Our study aims to compare the accuracy of the new wireless KangaCare monitoring system in measuring oxygen levels, heart rate, pulse rate and temperature, against current monitoring devices used in practice during kangaroo care. We aim to get feedback from 10 parents and 10 healthcare professionals on the new device and explore the parent/infant interaction by assessing their visual attention during an episode of kangaroo care using visual attention glasses for 25 parents.

  Fifty infants admitted on the neonatal unit, deemed clinically well to have kangaroo care, will be eligible. The infant can have up to 6 episodes of kangaroo care with the new device with the usual care monitoring system still attached. Parents and healthcare professional recruits will have capacity to give informed consent to be eligible. The research is funded by Innovate UK grant. Recruitment will occur at two neonatal units at the Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust.

• REC name

  North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1

• REC reference

  24/NS/0043

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Apr 2024

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion