STUDY OF SOUND LEVELS IN NICU: DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Abstract

Introduction: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) have introduced noise as a major physical factor causing pollution in NICUs. The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that sound levels be lower than 45 dBA in the NICU. They thus suggested that the admittance of infants to these wards might be associated with deafness This project included conducting sound surveys of naturall Methodology: y occurring noise in the NICU environments. There was no direct neonate involvement. Each part has two sections A and B, the section A is from more sick babies requiring Level 3 NICU care, whereas the section B is for babies requiring Level 2 NICU care. The mean num Results: bers of staff present in NICU during Day and Night time is 9 and 6 respectively. For all the infants in section A and section B, monitors were used, infusion pumps were used for all babies in section A and as required in section B. Average ventilated babies/day was 1. Conclusion: The sound levels measured in NICU environment and inside incubator in section A and section B, the results show there is no signicant difference the level of sound exposure to the babies in each section.