Associations of exposure to noise with physiological and psychological outcomes among post-cardiac surgery patients in ICUs.
OBJECTIVE
This study sought to study the associations of noise with heart rate, blood pressure, and perceived psychological and physiological responses among post-cardiac surgery patients in ICUs.


METHODS
Forty patients participated in this study after recovering from anesthesia. A sound-level meter was placed at bedsides to measure noise level for 42 hours, and patients' heart rate and blood pressure were recorded every 5 minutes. Patients were also interviewed for their perceived psychological/physiological responses.


RESULTS
The average noise level was between 59.0 and 60.8 dB(A) at the study site. Annoyance and insomnia were the respective psychological and physiological responses reported most often among the patients. Although noise level, irrespective of measures, was not observed to be significantly associated with the self-assessed psychological and physiological responses, it was significantly associated with both heart rate and blood pressure.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that the noise in ICUs may adversely affect the heart rate and blood pressure of patients, which warrants the attention of hospital administrators and health care workers.
Department of Nursing, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Suh-Meei
SM
Hsu
Wen-Je
WJ
Ko
Wen-Chun
WC
Liao
Sheng-Jean
SJ
Huang
Robert J
RJ
Chen
Chung-Yi
CY
Li
Shiow-Li
SL
Hwang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D003325:Coronary Care Units; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult