Noise-induced Stress in Hospital Patients: Coping and Nonauditory Health Outcomes

This study found that, for 150 postoperative male patients, degree of objective noise, intrinsic sensitivity of the person to noise, and noise-induced stress were positively related to coping, in the form of exercised control over noise (correlations ranged from r = .207 to r = .468, P less than .01 for all cases). Hierarchical multiple regression confirmed these results. Furthermore, greater sensitivity of the person to noise was positively correlated with ability to cope, regardless of the objective level of noise. Patients who were randomly assigned to an experimental group, where they received instructions for control over noise, showed no difference in coping ability than a control group. There was a lack of support for several hypotheses concerned with the effects of noise-induced stress and coping on health, where stress was measured by self-reports of recovery and average time-out-of-bed in minutes. The meaning of these results is discussed in terms of stress theory.