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Noise pollution, annoyance, and sensitivity; its impact on general health and aggression of hospital staffs

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Abstract

Exposure to the excessive noise can leads to serious physiological and psychological effects on human health. The present study was aimed to determine the employees’ exposure to noise, and its relationship with their noise annoyance, general health, and aggression. This cross-sectional study was carried out among 113 employees of hospitals in Kurdistan-Iran. The noise pressure level (Leq), noise annoyance, general health, and aggression were evaluated using their own specific tools. Data analyzed using SPSS-V.21 by applying the independent t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson’s test, which a significance level of 0.05 was considered. Mean of the Leq in both hospitals was 62.7 ± 4.3 dB. About 42.5% of the staff reported very high noise annoyance. There was a significant relationship between the Leq and noise annoyance (P-value = 0.01). In term of general health, about 44.2% of the staff were healthful, and 35.4%, 17.7%, and 2.7% of them had mild, moderate, and severe symptoms, respectively. Aggression subscales from the highest to the lowest order were related to the verbal aggression, anger, hostility, and physical aggression. The aggression had a significant correlation with the Leq and general health status (P-value < 0.05). The Leq, noise annoyance, general health, and aggression had difference between departments of hospital, but none of these factors were different between work shifts. The emergency, laboratory, and pediatric departments had the highest Leq and the most unfavorable general health. The noise annoyance and aggression in the emergency ward was significantly higher than others (e.g., operating room and CCU).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the management of Fajr and Bu-Ali hospitals and the staff participating in the study.

Funding

This study was supported by Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (Grant numbers: 1396/168).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Network of Marivan, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

    Hedayat Abbasi & Keyvan Salimi

  2. Department of Health, Safety and Environment, Faculty of Health and Nutrition, Student Research Committee, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

    Mansour Ziaei & Melika Jokar

  3. Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Sajad Zare

  4. Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health and Nutrition, Student Research Committee, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

    Nima Rashidi

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  1. Hedayat Abbasi
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Contributions

The research was designed by M. Ziaei and H. Abbasi. Sampling and data collection were done by H. Abbasi, M. Jokar and N. Rashidi and K. Salimi performed the statistical analysis. M. Ziaei and S. Zare wrote the manuscript; the final manuscript was approved by all the authors.

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Correspondence to Mansour Ziaei.

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Abbasi, H., Ziaei, M., Salimi, K. et al. Noise pollution, annoyance, and sensitivity; its impact on general health and aggression of hospital staffs. Curr Psychol 43, 14171–14182 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05434-y

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