Volume 20, Issue 1 (March 2022)                   Iranian Rehabilitation Journal 2022, 20(1): 53-60 | Back to browse issues page

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Dehghan M, Seyedkalateh P, Akbarian-Rad Z, Haghshenas Mojaveri M, Khafri S, Ahmadi A. A Pilot Study of Developing an Infant Sucking Tester Instrument. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal 2022; 20 (1) :53-60
URL: http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-1359-en.html
A Pilot Study of Developing an Infant Sucking Tester Instrument
Mehdi Dehghan1 , Payam Seyedkalateh1 , Zahra Akbarian-Rad * 2, Mohsen Haghshenas Mojaveri2 , Soraya Khafri3 , Akram Ahmadi1
1- Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
2- Non-communicable Pediatric Disease Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
3- Department Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
Abstract:   (2363 Views)
Objectives: Most preterm infants experience oral feeding disorder. Sucking is the most appropriate way for oral feeding, but it may be immature in preterm infants. Regarding the increased risk of feeding problems in preterm infants, investigating and monitoring their sucking patterns to present appropriate and timely intervention is recommended
The current research aimed to report the design of an instrument for measuring the suction pressure in preterm infants through a pilot study. We also checked the validity and reliability of the instrument.
Methods: A pilot study was conducted to measure the validity and reliability of this instrument. First, the instrument was developed, and in the next step, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, and comparison in terms of sex were investigated by measuring the suction pressure of 20 full-term and 15 preterm infants. The Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon test were used to establish the discriminant validity, comparison in terms of sex, and test-retest reliability in SPSS v. 23 software.
Results: Two groups showed a significant difference in the suction pressure (P<0.001) to support the discriminant validity of the instrument. We obtained satisfactory values for the test-retest reliability in two groups (r=0.97, P<0.001). Boys and girls did not significantly differ between full-term (P=0.9) and preterm infants groups (P=0.5).
Discussion: Performing the pilot study on 35 infants through an infant sucker tester proved the instrument’s discriminant validity and test-retest reliability. However, conducting the studies with a larger sample size is essential to make this instrument available commercially.
Keywords: Sucking, Oral feeding disorder, Infants, Full-Term infants, Late preterm infants, Sucking tester, Instrument
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Article type: Original Research Articles | Subject: Speech therapy
Received: 2021/05/10 | Accepted: 2021/11/22 | Published: 2022/06/1
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