Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong YKC(1), Cheung HYA(1), Poon WFD(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Occupational Therapy Department, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
High risk infants (HRI) include babies who are born preterm, with low birth weight, or infants suffering from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. HRI are prone to have complications like developmental delay; and 6.3% of HRI in Hong Kong suffered from cerebral palsy. Currently in Prince of Wales Hospital, face-to-face initial assessment would take place at corrected age (CA) 2 months due to a long waiting time. However, early intervention has been proven to be effective in improving neurodevelopmental function. Therefore, a pilot early post-discharge parental education session was designed and delivered through telehealth to shorten the waiting time, and enhance the access and service efficiency of OT care.
Objectives :
1. To evaluate the association between early intervention through telehealth and HRI’s cognitive, fine and gross motor development 2. To evaluate the feasibility and satisfaction of the pilot telehealth program 3. To shorten the waiting time between referral date and initial attendance
Methodology :
14 participants were equally allocated into an intervention and control group by convenience sampling. Intervention group received a new carer education program on home training via HA Go within one month after discharge; whilst conventional care did not. Both groups would receive an assessment at CA 2 months at the clinic. Infant’s development would be assessed by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development 4th Edition in terms of fine motor, gross motor and cognition at CA 2 months and 4 months to observe their progress. A questionnaire was also designed to evaluate the effectiveness and satisfaction of the program.
Result & Outcome :
Intervention group showed a significantly higher scale score of the intervention group’s cognitive (p=0.031) and gross motor (p=0.005) domain at CA 2 months; as well as cognitive (p=0.003) and fine motor (p=0.003) at CA 4 months. There is also significant improvement in fine motor domain (p=0.016) in the intervention but not control group after both groups received initial face-to-face treatment. Results reported a satisfaction score of 4.8 over 5 in the evaluation. All parents agreed that early intervention increased their confidence in conducting home training. 86% of them totally agreed that HA Go was easy to use. The waiting time for the initial attendance was shortened from 67 to 31 days on average which greatly reduced the waiting time.
