Effects of intensive care unit ambient sounds on healthcare professionals: results of an online survey and noise exposure in an experimental setting

Intensive Care Medicine Experimental

Table 3 Results of post-task questions about perceived strains by noise conditions

Questions	Noise	Mean ± SD	Median	Z	p	Sign
“How stressed did you feel during the task?”	Pink	47.1 ± 23.9	50	856.5	0.002	**
“How stressed did you feel during the task?”	ICU	61.6 ± 19.2	66.5	856.5	0.002	**
“I experienced the background sound as too loud.”	Pink	1.96 ± 0.71	2	762	< 0.001	***
“I experienced the background sound as too loud.”	ICU	2.87 ± 0.89	3	762	< 0.001	***
“During the n-Back task, I felt distracted by the background sound.”	Pink	1.96 ± 0.79	2	640	< 0.001	***
	ICU	2.87 ± 0.95	3	640	< 0.001	***
“I felt annoyed by the background sounds.”	Pink	1.83 ± 0.76	2	355	0.002	**
“I felt annoyed by the background sounds.”	ICU	2.37 ± 0.91	2	355	0.002	**
“I was able to solve the task reliable and correctly.”	Pink	2.38 ± 0.77	3	107	0.007	**
“I was able to solve the task reliable and correctly.”	ICU	2.00 ± 0.77	2	107	0.007	**