The Impact of Road Traffic Noise on Hospital Workers

Background/Objectives: None of the researchers has investigated the risk on workers exposed to noise pollution inJordan. This study tries to fill in this gap through investigating the effect of traffic noise on the performance of hospital workers in Amman, the capital of Jordan, as a specific affected group. Method: Noise levels were measured at locations adjacent to three main hospitals with readings taken during two 1-hour periods 12 hours apart. A cross-sectional attitudinal survey was carried out in these hospitals using a predesigned questionnaire. A pilot study was carried out in order to examine if there was any feedbacks before the full-scale survey is launched. A sample of 150 participants from medical care personnel in the three hospitals including doctors, nursing staff and administrators, were subjected to self – answered questionnaire and 145 questionnaires were valid returns indicating a high response rate. Findings: The results reveal that the studied hospitals suffer much higher noise levels than the permissible limits and these levels were found to have a negative impact on workers' and patients outcomes. More than 43% of the medical care staff reported that they always get annoyed by traffic noise and this causes them a difficulty in concentration and distract their attention while working. 50% agree that traffic noise has a negative impact on their performance. 26% of the survey participants reported that they suffer from headache due to the high noise levels and as such some potential countermeasures to mitigate the problem are recommended. Conclusion/Improvements: The average measured sound levels were found to be much higher than the environmental daytime and nighttime noise limits required by the regulations in Jordan. Noise pollution was also found to either directly or indirectly affects, in a simultaneous manner, the subjective perception of noise, emotion, physiology and experience of noise of the medical care staff.