Clinical Research Directory

Social Media and Risk-reduction Training for Preterm Infant Care Practices

SMART Preemie is a cluster randomized trial that will investigate the effectiveness of NICU-based and post-discharge interventions to improve adherence to safe sleep practices among mothers of preterm infants. This study includes two complementary, culturally competent, intervention strategies and will test the effectiveness of each strategy, as well as both strategies in combination. The attention matched-control intervention will focus on shared reading. The SMART Preemie study will have four arms in which 16 hospitals are randomly assigned to one of the following study groups: 1) Safe Sleep NICU Quality Improvement Campaign and Shared Reading TodaysNICUBaby videos and messages; 2) Shared Reading NICU Quality Improvement Campaign and Safe Sleep TodaysNICUBaby videos and messages; 3) Safe Sleep NICU Quality Improvement Campaign and Safe Sleep TodaysNICUBaby videos and messages; 4) Shared Reading NICU Quality Improvement Campaign and Shared Reading TodaysNICUBaby videos and messages. A total of 1600 mothers will be recruited (100/hospital), with 400 in each study group. The primary aim is to assess the effectiveness of the interventions aimed at promoting safe sleep practices compared with the shared reading control interventions. The secondary aim is to assess potential mediating factors that may explain the intervention effects on infant care practices and that may inform areas for future improved intervention approaches. The tertiary aim is to assess key implementation outcomes which will be used for future scale-up. With the successful completion of the SMART Preemie study, effectiveness, mechanism, and implementation data will have been provided for two interventions to improve adherence to safe sleep practices that are practical to disseminate nationally in multiple diverse settings.