Acoustic measurements of sound levels in common rooms and sleeping rooms of care facilities for older adults...9th World Conference of the International Society for Gerontechnology (ISG), June 18-21, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan.
Purpose The International Classification of Functioning, Disabilities and Health model from the World Health Organization1 offers a framework designed to examine how environmental factors can influence the physical, social and attitudinal environment in which people live in a positive or negative wa...
| Publicado en: | Gerontechnology Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 86 - 88 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | abstract pictorial proceedings research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
International Society for Gerontechnology
2014 Special Issue
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Purpose The International Classification of Functioning, Disabilities and Health model from the World Health Organization1 offers a framework designed to examine how environmental factors can influence the physical, social and attitudinal environment in which people live in a positive or negative way. In other words, these factors can act like facilitators or barriers. Sound is one of these environmental factors. Especially for the frail elderly people, sound can act like a barrier. Older adults dealing with hearing loss can encounter problems in understanding the speech of other people and in holding conversations in noisy environments. High sound levels in sleeping rooms are likely to contribute to abnormal sleep/wakefulness patterns2 that older adults often suffer from. This study was designed to examine and gain more insight into the sound sources and the sound levels occurring in rooms of care facilities for older adults. Method A field study was performed in five common rooms and five sleeping rooms of care facilities for older adults. Long-term sound level measurements were performed to determine the background noise levels as a function of time and frequency. Sound levels were recorded continuously day and night. The types of sound sources causing the peak levels were determined by listening to the recordings. Results & Discussion Peak sound levels are mostly caused by the slamming of doors (e.g. closets) and activities of residents and professional caregivers. Averaged over the five sleeping rooms the results show in the night period a mean A-weighted background noise level of 32.1 dB. The maximum A-weighted peak levels go up to 97.8 dB. During the day in the common rooms a mean Aweighted background noise level of 55.3 dB was measured with a maximum A-weighted peak levels up to 115.0 dB. |
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