Open AccessSound Pressure Levels in 2 Veterinary Intensive Care Units
Author(s) -
Fullagar B.,
Boysen S.R.,
Toy M.,
Makwana C.,
Pang D.S.J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of veterinary internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.356
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1939-1676
pISSN - 0891-6640
DOI - 10.1111/jvim.13574
Subject(s) - medicine , intensive care , loudness , sound (geography) , noise (video) , sound pressure , sound exposure , observational study , audiology , intensive care medicine , acoustics , physics , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
Background Intensive care units ( ICU s) in human hospitals are consistently noisy environments with sound levels sufficient to substantially decrease sleep quality. Sound levels in veterinary ICU s have not been studied previously, but environmental sound has been shown to alter activity in healthy dogs. Hypothesis Veterinary ICU s, like those in human medicine, will exceed international guidelines for hospital noise. Animals NA. Methods Prospective, observational study performed consecutively and simultaneously over 4 weeks in 2 veterinary ICU s. Conventional A‐weighted sound pressure levels (equivalent continuous level [a reflection of average sound], the sound level that is exceeded 90% of the recording period time [reflective of background noise], and maximum sound levels) were continuously recorded and the number of spikes in sound >80 dBA were manually counted. Results Noise levels were comparable to ICU s in human hospitals. The equivalent continuous sound level was higher in ICU 1 than in ICU 2 at every time point compared, with greatest differences observed on week day ( ICU 1, 60.1 ± 3.7 dBA ; ICU 2, 55.9 ± 2.5 dBA , P < .001) and weekend nights ( ICU 1, 59.9 ± 2.4 dBA ; ICU 2, 53.4 ± 1.7 dBA , P < .0001) reflecting a 50% difference in loudness. Similar patterns were observed for the maximum and background noise levels. The number of sound spikes was up to 4 times higher in ICU 1 (162.3 ± 84.9 spikes) than in ICU 2 (40.4 ± 12.2 spikes, P = .001). Conclusions and Clinical Importance These findings show that sound in veterinary ICU s is loud enough to potentially disrupt sleep in critically ill veterinary patients.