A telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and symptom distress in mothers with difficult infants in the community

• Published in: Journal of Advanced Nursing
• Main Authors: Thome, Marga, Alder, Beth
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1999
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00872.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-2648.1999.00872.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00872.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00872.x

A telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and symptom distress in mothers with difficult infants in the community ¶ The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and the resulting symptom distress of mothers in Iceland who reported having a behaviourally difficult infant of 2‐3 months of age. A sample of 78 mothers who reached distress criteria of depressive symptoms and parental stress was selected and randomly allocated in a controlled experimental study. In a brief intervention both maternal distress and infant difficulty were discussed. Results indicate a significant ( P < 0·001) intervention effect on fatigue and its side‐effects. It is concluded that intervention by telephone can be effective with fatigued mothers caring for a difficult infant.