Assessment of environmental noise and its effect on neonates in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

A method for analyzing the influence of noise on newborns is proposed. The method consists of defining three different types of time interval (quiet, noisy and nursing) and, for each period, environmental noise levels, heart rate, mean arterial pressure and oxygen saturation is continuously measured. The statistical analysis of the influence of the equivalent noise level, rather than instantaneous noise level, on the behavior of the physiological variables is carried out. Great influence of noise is found by using this method, which is also easily translatable to other intensive care units as actual noise conditions are used in the investigation. Moreover, episodes of Bradycardia, Hypoxia and Hypertension are easily related to simultaneous direct nursing activity or a short but high enough noise event, suggesting that both sustained noisy environment and isolated peak noises lead to the alteration of the physiological variables.Preprin

The impact of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on sensory and developmental outcomes in infants born preterm: A scoping review

“…Previous evidence highlights that preterm infants are at a higher risk of poor neurodevelopmental and sensory outcomes compared with their full-term peers. Expanding on this notion, multiple studies have documented the immediate negative implications for exposure to auditory stimuli in the neonatal phase for preterm infants, both in motor skill development and autonomic regulation (Lejeune et al., 2016; Romeu et al., 2016). These studies were excluded from this review as they examined medical status (that is, physiological stability), and did not meet our criteria for sensory or developmental outcomes.…”

“…Recent studies have proposed a link between the NICU sensory environment and specific medical and health outcomes. Several studies reported that very preterm infants are able to perceive moderate acoustic environmental changes in the NICU and benefit from live maternal vocal stimulation, as demonstrated by alterations to physiological stability (Romeu et al., 2016). Furthermore, several randomized control trials and prospective studies have reported the efficacy of using sound minimization techniques (for example, ear muffs, silicone earplugs and acoustic foam in incubators) in the NICU to stabilize autonomic function and increase weight in preterm infants (Abdeyazdan et al., 2014).…”

Design Guidelines for Light and Noise Management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…-Affectations to the newborn: alterations of the autonomic nervous system (tachycardia, desaturations, apneas...); sleep disruptions; changes in brain activity; an energy expenditure increase; behavioural changes; alterations in the development of speech and language; difficulties in listening to the mother's voice; and hearing loss. Bilateral hearing loss is ten times more frequent in premature babies, being the environmental noise one of the main factors to which they are subjected in critical units [9].…”

The need to implement noise reduction measurements in a neonatal intensive care unit in hospitals in low and middle-income countries – A case study

“…Excessive noise generates adverse effects such as sleep disorders, poor development of responses to stimuli, affectation of the nervous system, growth delays, and even decreased hearing capacity [17]- [19]. Newborns in NICUs are exposed to an overload of sound stimuli from different sources such as the ones generated by the alarms of the medical equipment, telephones, conversations of the medical personnel, the closing, and opening of doors, monitors, incubators, ventilatory circuits, visitors and, cleaning staff shifts, among others [13], [14], [16]- [20]. The majority of reported cases concluded that recorded noise levels exceed the suggested limits by the WHO, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and/or Ecuadorian environmental regulations such as the Uni ed Text of Secondary Environmental Legislation (TULSMA) [13], [21].…”