Background and Objective:
Knowledge regarding noise pollution has been increasing recently, but awareness in the context of hospital settings is necessary among the hospital staff to make noise reduction in hospitals a priority in India. The objective of this study is to determine the awareness regarding hospital noise and its effects among staff working in a tertiary care hospital in North India.
Materials and Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted among staff members working in any capacity in a 1600-bedded tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India. A predesigned, pretested, semistructured questionnaire was used to collect information on knowledge and perception among the staff regarding hospital noise in their workplace and its effects. Data were analyzed in SPSS 21 IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows Version 21.0 [Computer software]. IBM Corp.
Results:
Of 450 study participants, 319 (70.9%) agreed that noise affects human health and 235 (52.2%) were knowledgeable regarding any hospital noise legislation. The most frequently perceived health effect of hospital noise was annoyance (311, 69.3%), followed by hearing impairment (285, 63.5%). Workplaces were deemed to be noisy by only 219 (48.7%) respondents. Of the sources of noise identified, 29% were totally avoidable and 23% were partially avoidable. Education, socioeconomic status, and area of work were significantly associated with knowledge and perceptions regarding hospital noise.
Conclusions:
Knowledge regarding hospital noise and its effects was lacking among 25–50% of the staff working in the hospital. More than half of the identified hospital noise sources were either completely or partially avoidable through staff sensitization, strategic procedural changes to mitigate noise, and strict implementation of patient and visitor rules.
Indian Journal of Community Medicine ():10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_654_24, November 13, 2025. | DOI: 10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_654_24
