Noise pollution and sleep disturbance among Neyshabur Hospital staff, Iran (2015)

Background: Noise pollution is the third most dangerous risk factor for human health after air and water pollution. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of noise pollution on sleep disturbance among Neyshabur governmental teaching hospital staff, Iran, in 2015. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in winter 2015. The sample size was 261 people from 2 hospitals in Neyshabur. The instruments for data collection were a CELL440 sound meter and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The mean sound level in the 22-Bahman and Hakim hospitals was 35.10 ± 8.79 dB and 44.60 ± 10.02 dB, respectively. 87% of the participants had poor sleep quality and 30% had to use sleeping pills to get to sleep. In 94.6%, poor nocturnal sleep caused poor performance during the day. 69.3% of participants reported that it took more than 30 minutes for them to get to sleep. Work history and exposure to noise had an inverse association with sleep quality. For each unit increase in noise, the score of sleep quality decreased significantly by 0.6. Conclusions: Sleep quality can affect the performance of hospital personnel and can cause human errors in prescribing and injecting medications and other therapeutic interventions. It consequently has adverse effects on the patients. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken for reducing and controlling the noise, informing the personnel, changing shiftwork patterns, and allowing people to choose shift work voluntarily.