Characterizing the acoustic environment in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

In this work, noise sources were studied in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by evaluating the noise from various sources, including the influence of the work of the NICU staff. The objective was to evaluate the acoustic quality in the usual conditions in NICU rooms and inside incubators by mon...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied acoustics 2020-08, Vol.165, p.107301, Article 107301
Main Authors: Hernández-Molina, Ricardo, Beira Jiménez, J.L., Rodriguez-Montaño, Victor, Zacarías, F. Fernández, Bienvenido-Huertas, David, Lubián López, Simón, Cueto-Ancela, José Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial neural networks
Incubator
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
Neonates
Noise source
Sound pressure
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this work, noise sources were studied in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by evaluating the noise from various sources, including the influence of the work of the NICU staff. The objective was to evaluate the acoustic quality in the usual conditions in NICU rooms and inside incubators by monitoring the noise in both environments, and then data were processed using artificial neural networks. Although some types of noise were accurately classified in this way, the lack of uniformity of their sound spectra, their simultaneity, and concomitance hindered the unequivocal interpretation of some results with the classification models. After analyzing the results, it can be affirmed that the alarms of equipment had a remarkable influence on the acoustic environment. Other important influences also appeared due to the conversations of the staff, the use of the telephone, and the hauling of equipment and furniture.
ISSN:0003-682X
1872-910X
DOI:10.1016/j.apacoust.2020.107301