Effect of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Premature infants are prone to suffer multisystem complications after birth due to the incomplete development of organ tissues and low immunity, and they require a longer period of supervised treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). However, due to the specificity of medical care in the NICU, the sleep of preterm infants is highly susceptible that has an impact on the prognosis of preterm infants. Recently, various non-pharmacological interventions have been applied to the sleep of preterm infants in the NICU, which have shown positive outcomes. However, the efficacy and safety of them are unclear. This study aims to evaluate the effects of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep in preterm infants in the NICU through a network meta-analysis. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep in preterm infants in the NICU published before September 2021 will be searched in online databases, including the Chinese Scientific Journal Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wanfang, China Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science. Two researchers will be independently responsible for screening and selecting eligible literatures, extracting data and evaluating the risk of bias in the included studies. Stata 14.0 software will be used for data analysis. RESULTS: The results of this meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. CONCLUSION: This study will provide comprehensive and reliable evidence-based references for the efficacy and safety in different non-pharmacological interventions on sleep in preterm infants in the NICU.