Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoudh, P.C. 123, P.O. Box 33, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Feb;29(10):15081-15097. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-16875-y. Epub 2021 Oct 8.
Hospital-noise levels can induce physiological responses and affect sleep quality, which could contribute to cardiovascular-related health problems. Till date, high-resolution hospital noise exposure assessment studies have not received much attention in Oman. This study aims at assessing sound pressure levels across hospital wards and intensive care unit (ICU) rooms to determine annoyance and potential health effects based on perception and risk estimates. An indoor exposure assessment using high precision noise sensors was conducted in a female medical ward (FMW), isolated ward (SLW), emergency ward (EMW), and intensive care unit (ICU) in a public hospital in Muscat city, Oman. Self-administered questionnaire was randomly distributed among respondents using both online and field survey approach to ascertain annoyance, health effects, and potential risks associated with exposure. The study found that 24-h noise levels (L) ranged from 55.2 to 61.7 dB(A) in the hospital wards and ICU rooms, which exceeded WHO's hospital indoor rooms critical limit of 35 dB(A) by 58-76%. A total of 150 participants took part in the survey. Among the respondents, 53% reported moderate annoyance at the hospital wards, while 56% felt sensitivity to the noise levels. Noise annoyance was reported by the majority of the patients across the various wards and emergency rooms as causing slight annoyance (50%) and intermittent sleep disturbances (49%). The majority (73%) of the medical staff have complained that the current noise levels affect overall work performance (p = 0.004), while 70% of them have further complained of it as a cause of workplace distraction (p = 0.011). Logistic binary regression analysis has revealed that the complaint of noise sensitivity has a positive association with noise levels in VCW (OR: 1.54; 95% CI: 0.92-2.58), and reported loss of concentration by the medical staff also associated with noise levels at the EMW (OR: 1.61; 95% CI: 0.65-4.01). Quantitative risk estimates showed that both the percentages of highly annoyed (HA) persons (16%), and highly sleep-disturbed (HSD) persons (9%) were very high in FMW, while ICU was found to have the lowest risk. However, the greater number of the respondents (87%) believed that there are possibilities of mitigating (p < 0.001) the current noise levels.
医院的噪音水平可能会引起生理反应并影响睡眠质量，从而导致与心血管相关的健康问题。迄今为止，在阿曼，高分辨率的医院噪声暴露评估研究并未受到太多关注。本研究旨在评估医院病房和重症监护病房 (ICU) 房间的声压级，以根据感知和风险估计来确定烦恼和潜在的健康影响。在阿曼的一家公立医院，使用高精度噪声传感器对女病房 (FMW)、隔离病房 (SLW)、急诊病房 (EMW) 和 ICU 进行了室内暴露评估。使用在线和现场调查的方法，向受访者随机分发了自我管理问卷，以确定与暴露相关的烦恼、健康影响和潜在风险。研究发现，医院病房和 ICU 房间的 24 小时噪声水平 (L) 范围为 55.2 至 61.7dB(A)，超过了世界卫生组织室内医院房间临界限值 35dB(A)58-76%。共有 150 名参与者参加了调查。在受访者中，53%的人在医院病房感到中度烦恼，而 56%的人对噪声水平感到敏感。大多数患者在各个病房和急诊室报告说，噪音引起轻微烦恼 (50%)和间歇性睡眠障碍 (49%)。大多数 (73%)医务人员抱怨当前的噪声水平影响整体工作表现 (p=0.004)，而 70%的人抱怨它是工作场所分心的原因 (p=0.011)。逻辑二元回归分析表明，噪声敏感性的投诉与 VCW 中的噪声水平呈正相关 (OR:1.54;95%CI:0.92-2.58)，医务人员报告注意力丧失也与 EMW 中的噪声水平相关 (OR:1.61;95%CI:0.65-4.01)。定量风险估计显示，在 FMW 中，高度烦恼 (HA) 者 (16%)和高度睡眠障碍 (HSD) 者 (9%)的百分比都非常高，而 ICU 的风险最低。然而，大多数受访者 (87%)认为有可能降低当前的噪声水平 (p<0.001)。
