Noise Abatement Technology for Long Term Care

Noise has been documented to be disruptive of nursing home residents' sleep and there is evidence trelated to other common resident problems observed in nursing homes (e.g., agitation, withdrawal, dealso evidence that much of the nighttime noise is due to staff and that this noise can be reduced ifUnfortunately, the feedback systems that have been utilized to date are very labor intense and cannolong time periods. We will develop an efficient system to monitor noise in the nursing home and to tinto a computerized feedback system that will permit continuous improvement of noise levels. This sytwo nursing homes and its ability to reduce noise over long time periods (40 nights) will be compareor no feedback condition, and 2) a more labor intense staff feedback condition. The ability of the tnoise abatement effects over time will be documented by comparing Nursing Home 1, utilizing the systagainst Nursing Home 2, utilizing a labor intense feedback system for 20 nights and then reversing tfeedback condition.