ATVV

This interaction is graphed in Figure 1 and shows beneficial effects of music/adapted ATVV stimulation for females but not for males.

The graph shows a delayed, but increasing rate of tolerance for those male and female infants who required a longer hospital stay and received up to 6 days of music/adapted ATVV stimulation.

This study has demonstrated that music/adapted ATVV stimulation can be particularly effective in this capacity and may be indicated for premature infants in intensive care, especially female infants.

In NBICU health care services, the music/adapted ATVV protocol might be used regularly by parents, cuddlers, and nurses from around 30-32 weeks gestation to discharge.

A significant Group effect was identified for PR (p [less than] .001), reflecting a modest increase for Groups T, ATV, and ATVV. In general, infants showed stronger responses on successive days, indicated by significant main effects for days for PR (p [less than] .001) and RR (p = .01).

PR for Groups ATV and ATVV were not different from controls.

Except for the ATVV group, alertness evolved into sleep within the first 5 minutes postintervention, although this trend failed to reach significance.

Group ATVV exhibited a unique sleep pattern involving only a gradual increase in alertness during intervention (11%, 240 observations), followed by increasing alertness that was sustained over the 30-minute postintervention (24%, 280 observations) (see Table 4).

Only Groups T and ATVV had sufficient variability to warrant further analyses of PR and RR.

Distribution of Autonomic Responses Low Intermediate High Total PR <140 140 - 180 >180 N Group T 122 691 67 880 Group ATVV 159 576 35 770 RR <30 30 - 60 >60 N Group T 251 499 1 30 880 Group ATVV 193 493 84 770 PR [chi square] (df) p Group T Group ATVV [chi square](2) = 18.096, p<.0001 RR Group T Group ATVV [chi square] (2) = 10.213, p<.01

The findings of a 6 bpm increase in HR, a 4-respiration per minute decrease in RR, and .45% decrease in Sa[O.sub.2] replicate and extend recent demonstrations of the safety of the ATVV. White-Traut and Goldman (1988) reported that 35-week infants had a mean 12 bpm increase in HR and a mean of 5 breaths per minute RR increase while receiving the ATVV, whereas 33-week infants had a 6.5 bpm increase in PR (White-Traut et al., 1993).