Effect of Repositioning Frequency on Bilirubin Levels and Comfort in Neonates Receiving Phototherapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

AIM: This study was conducted to determine the effects of the frequency of repositioning during phototherapy on neonates' bilirubin levels and comfort. METHODS: This was a single-centre, three-arm, pretest-posttest parallel-group randomized controlled trial conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the supine position group (n = 20), the hourly position change group (n = 20), and the control group (2-h position change) (n = 20). The bilirubin levels and comfort levels of the neonates were evaluated. RESULTS: It was determined that there was no difference between the groups in terms of baseline total bilirubin (TB) levels, TB levels at the end of 24 h, and time neonate was not under phototherapy (p > 0.05). The effect of the interventions on the comfort score was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.001). The mean levels were 10.28 ± 0.92 in the supine group, 10.63 ± 0.81 in the hourly position change group, and 7.14 ± 0.28 in the control group. The effect of group, time, group and time on the comfort score was also statistically significant (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained in this study show that there is no statistically significant difference in bilirubin levels between the different positional groups during phototherapy. Neonates in the control group were found to have higher comfort compared to the other two groups.