AN INVESTIGATION OF ACOUSTICAL PERFORMANCE IN NURSING HOMES

Abstract

Nursing homes provide a place of care and resting for the elderly and the sick. The residents will likely spend the rest of their living years in the same environment and the importance of the safety and comfort attributes of this environment cannot be stressed enough. High level of noise within will lead to detrimental physiological, mental and social effects on the residents. Despite this, there are no local or updated noise guideline values catering specifically for nursing homes. This dissertation report looks at noise levels in nursing homes and the health and comfort of the residents within, pertaining directly to effects of noise. The present research involved 4 nursing homes in Singapore. Objective data in the form of field measurements on the noise levels as well as subjective data involving survey questionnaires were obtained. Results showed that even though most residents (92%) in the nursing home were satisfied with the noise level within the nursing home, the measured sound level within them were significantly higher than the World Health Organization’s guideline values, implying that the residents are facing effects such as annoyance and sleep disturbance or inherent effects such as increased blood pressure. Even though the small sample size (4 out of 60 homes in Singapore) makes the study inconclusive of the general population of Singapore nursing homes, the study provides some insight into the noise levels and the effects of it on the residents within.