Testing Guidelines for Child Health Care Nurses to Prevent Nonsynostotic Plagiocephaly: A Swedish Pilot Study

The aim of the study is to test effectiveness of guidelines for nurses that can be incorporated into the child health care program to prevent nonsynostotic plagiocephaly (NSP) in infants while still following sudden infant death syndrome-preventive recommendations. When guidelines were followed as intended in a Swedish pilot study, only 8.5% of infants had some degree of NSP at 6 months, compared to 25.6% of infants in the comparison group. Results indicate that the early and regular implementation of these guidelines by nurses may be an effective way to prevent NSP. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.