Stress Effects of Personal Control over Hospital Noise

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Abstract
Hospital critical care unit (CCU) sounds, instruction in personal control over noise, and stress were studied in 105 female volunteers attempting to sleep overnight in a simulated hospital environment. Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups—instruction in personal control over noise, no instruction in personal control over noise, or a quiet condition. The two noise conditions heard audiotaped recorded playback of CCU nighttime sounds. The subjects with instruction in personal control received directions for using a sound conditioner to block out unwanted sounds. This intervention failed to result in less stress. The results of group comparisons provided strong support for a causal relationship between CCU sounds and greater subjective stress (p < .000) but not for physiological stress measured by urinary epinephrine. As predicted, scores for sensitivity of the person to noise were positively correlated with scores for noise-induced subjective stress (r = .226, p < .05). Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that CCU sound levels independently accounted for 54% (p < .001) and sensitivity to noise for 5% (p < .01) of the variance in subjective stress.