ArticleThe Southern African journal of critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Society2025
Noise levels in intensive care units at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
Article in The Southern African journal of critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Noise exposure can negatively affect patients and staff. Patients may experience sleep disturbance, delirium and sympathetic stimulation. Communication may be hampered, and staff may experience alarm fatigue. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends time-averaged sound levels of 35 dB. Prolonged exposure to noise levels ≥85 dB may damage hearing. Studies on noise levels in adult intensive care units (ICUs) in South Africa are lacking. Objectives: To compare noise levels with WHO recommendations, across ICUs and between recording zones. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional research design was used. A class 2 sound-level meter measured noise levels in six adult ICUs at the central station and a patient cubicle for three 24-hour periods per ICU. Results: Time-weighted sound levels (L Conclusion: Noise levels consistently exceeded WHO recommendations, ranging between 48 and 65 dB. ICU size and layout do not appear to influence noise levels. Elevated daytime noise levels at central stations may result from increased daytime staff and duties. Noise-protective equipment is unnecessary as noise levels do not exceed 85 dB for >8 hours, but noise-reduction strategies should be broadly implemented to improve critical care. Contribution of the study: This is the first study in South Africa to measure sound levels in adult intensive care units and provides baseline data which can be used to implement interventions aimed at reducing noise levels to improve care of critically ill adult patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.