scholarly journals Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torresin ◽  
Albatici ◽  
Aletta ◽  
Babich ◽  
Kang

The design of an indoor acoustic environment positively perceived by building occupants requires a perceptual approach to be adopted in order to define what makes it sound good. Soundscape standards ISO 12913 have been introduced to assess how the acoustic environment is perceived, in context, by people. According to the standards, a straightforward characterization of a soundscape as positive is currently possible only through measurements by persons, because of a current gap in linking perceptual metrics to acoustic or psychoacoustic measurements. In addition, despite applying also to indoor contexts, methods and perceptual metrics described by the standards have been mainly derived from studies related to outdoor urban environments and it is not clear whether they could be directly applied indoor. For this reason, a systematic review was performed to investigate: (i) Data collection methods used in the literature for indoor residential soundscapes and (ii) factors, output of such methods, that characterize them positively. For this purpose, a systematic review has been conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines. The Scopus database was searched for peer-reviewed journal papers published in English, between 1 January 2009 and 24 June 2019, including: (1) field or laboratory studies relevant to residential buildings and (2) studies assessing factors that influence the perception by building users of indoor acoustic environments. The search excluded studies related to: (a) Speech perception issues; (b) noise-induced sleep disturbance; (c) acoustic perception by hearing impaired building users; (d) perception of vibrations or impact sounds. The search returned 1087 results. After the screening process, 37 articles were finally included. Given the differences in methodologic approaches, a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, and a qualitative approach was adopted instead. A large part of the selected literature reflected a general effort of minimizing noise annoyance by reducing noise exposure and, in particular, noise levels. Questionnaires and guided interviews were used to capture people’s perception, while the adoption of soundwalks and non-participatory behavioral studies did not emerge in the review literature and need further investigation. The evaluation of a variety of auditory sensations both in their positive and negative dimensions, beyond annoyance, would be required to explore the positive perceptual potential of sounds. Besides sound level, a variety of factors related and unrelated to the acoustic environment were found to affect perceptual outcomes and a framework of evaluation has been proposed as a reference for future assessments. Results encourage the integration of soundscape methodologies into IEQ research, in order to enhance user health and well-being.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 401-401
Author(s):  
Yue-Heng Yin ◽  
Liu Yat Justina

Abstract Obesity has been shown to intensify the decline of physical function and lead to frailty. Nutrition is an important method in managing obesity and frailty, while seldom reviews have ever explored the effects of nutritional education interventions. We conducted a systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42019142403) to explore the effectiveness of nutritional education interventions in managing body composition and physio-psychosocial parameters related to frailty. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies were searched in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus from 2001 to 2019. Hand search for the reference lists of included papers was conducted as well. We assessed the quality of included studies by Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses and narrative synthesis were used to analyse the data. Two studies with low risk of bias were screened from 180 articles, which involved 177 older people with an average age of 69.69±4.08 years old. The results showed that nutritional education was significantly effective in reducing body weight and fat mass than exercises, and it was beneficial to enhancing physical function and psychosocial well-being. But the effects of nutritional education in increasing muscle strength were not better than exercises. The combined effects of nutritional education and exercises were superior than either exercises or nutritional education interventions solely in preventing the loss of lean mass and bone marrow density, and in improving physical function. Due to limited numbers of relevant studies, the strong evidence of effectiveness of nutritional education interventions on reversing frailty is still lacking.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632199472
Author(s):  
Natalia Salamanca-Balen ◽  
Thomas V Merluzzi ◽  
Man Chen

Background: The concept of hope is an important theme in chronic illness and palliative care and has been associated with increased psycho-spiritual well-being and quality of life. Psycho-spiritual interventions have been described in this population, but no systematic review of hope-enhancing interventions or hopelessness-reducing interventions has been conducted for persons with palliative care diseases. Aim: To describe and assess the effectiveness of interventions in palliative care that measure hope and/or hopelessness as an outcome. Design: This systematic review and meta-analysis was pre-registered (Prospero ID: CRD42019119956). Data sources: Electronic databases, journals, and references were searched. We used the Cochrane criteria to assess the risk of bias within studies. Results: Thirty-five studies (24 randomized controlled trials, 5 quasi-experimental, 6 pre-post studies) involving a total of 3296 palliative care patients were included. Compared with usual/standard cancer care alone, interventions significantly increased hope levels at a medium effect size ( g = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.93) but did not significantly reduce hopelessness ( g = −0.08, 95% CI = −0.18 to 0.02). It was found that interventions significantly increase spirituality ( g = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.02–1.37) and decrease depression ( g = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.51 to −0.07), but had no significant effect over anxiety, quality of life, and symptom burden. Overall, quality of evidence across the included studies was rated as low. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that interventions can be effective in increasing hope in palliative care patients.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e043722
Author(s):  
Naomi Priest ◽  
Kate Doery ◽  
Mandy Truong ◽  
Shuaijun Guo ◽  
Ryan Perry ◽  
...  

IntroductionRacism is a critical determinant of health and health inequities for children and youth. This protocol aims to update the first systematic review conducted by Priest et al (2013), including a meta-analysis of findings. Based on previous empirical data, it is anticipated that child and youth health will be negatively impacted by racism. Findings from this review will provide updated evidence of effect sizes across outcomes and identify moderators and mediators of relationships between racism and health.Methods and analysisThis systematic review and meta-analysis will include studies that examine associations between experiences of racism and racial discrimination with health outcomes of children and youth aged 0–24 years. Exposure measures include self-reported or proxy reported systemic, interpersonal and intrapersonal racism. Outcome measures include general health and well-being, physical health, mental health, biological markers, healthcare utilisation and health behaviours. A comprehensive search of studies from the earliest time available to October 2020 will be conducted. A random effects meta-analysis will examine the average effect of racism on a range of health outcomes. Study-level moderation will test the difference in effect sizes with regard to various sample and exposure characteristics. This review has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews.Ethics and disseminationThis review will provide evidence for future research within the field and help to support policy and practice development. Results will be widely disseminated to both academic and non-academic audiences through peer-review publications, community summaries and presentations to research, policy, practice and community audiences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020184055.


Author(s):  
Mafalda Ferreira ◽  
António Marques ◽  
Paulo Veloso Gomes

Resilience interventions have been gaining importance among researchers due to their potential to provide well-being and reduce the prevalence of mental disorders that are becoming an increasing concern, especially in Western countries, because of the costs associated. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify the intervention studies carried out in the last decade in adult population samples, evaluate their methodological quality and highlight the trends of these types of interventions. This review was performed using systematic literature searches in the following electronic databases: B-on, PubMed, PsycNet and Science Direct. The application of eligibility criteria resulted in the inclusion of 38 articles, of which 33 were randomized controlled trials and the other five were nonrandomized controlled studies. Although most studies showed statistical significance for their results, these were constrained by the great heterogeneity of the studies, the lack of power of the samples and their fair methodological quality. Therefore, it is important to consolidate the theoretical basis and standardize certain methodologies so that the effects of the interventions can be compared through a meta-analysis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Eun-Kyoung Othelia Lee ◽  
Taixiang Wu ◽  
Herbert Benson ◽  
Gregory Fricchione ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Alaa Alquran ◽  
Katrina Lambert ◽  
Ambereen Farouque ◽  
Anne Holland ◽  
Janet Davies ◽  
...  

Adolescent asthma is still a major problem with poor adherence to treatment. Globally, adolescents are devoted users of smartphone technologies and app use in asthma self-management may improve adherence. The objective of this systematic review is to assess the feasibility and efficacy of mobile technology in improving asthma outcomes in adolescents. We conducted an extensive review of the peer-review literature of studies with populations consisting of children and adolescents under 18 years in seven bibliographic databases and Google Scholar. All study designs were considered. Quality assessment of included studies were independently assessed and reported. The search identified 291 articles; of the 16 eligible full-text papers, 8 met the review criteria, reporting two interventional, two qualitative and four observational studies. Samples ranged from 12 to 21 participants. Heterogeneity related to study design and the methods of the included studies prevented meta-analysis. Nevertheless, the intervention studies reported a positive effect of smartphone apps on asthma control, medication adherence and self-efficacy. Smartphone apps may be an effective asthma control tool especially among adolescents who are major users of smartphones; however, conclusions are limited by a lack of controlled trials and adequate sample sizes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dechasa Adare Mengistu ◽  
Yohannes Mulugeta Demmu ◽  
Addisu Alemu

Abstract Background: Back pains, such as low and upper back pains are among the most common musculoskeletal conditions that can cause major public health and socioeconomic problems. Back pain is one of the leading causes of disability that reduces worker performance and well-being and increases absence from work, which can cause an enormous economic burden. In developing countries, particularly in Ethiopia, there is no adequate evidence on the overall prevalence of occupational-related low and upper back pains and remain less prioritized and empirically unrepresented. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of occupational-related low and upper back pains among the working population of Ethiopia.Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis considered studies conducted in Ethiopia, written in English, and published from 2017-2020. Articles were searched from nine electronic databases (Web of Science, SCOPUS, PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, African Index Medicus, African Journals Online database and Science Direct) using a combination of Boolean logic operators, Medical Subject Headings and main keywords. The quality assessment of the articles was performed using Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tools to determine the relevance of the articles to the study. A random effects model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence, the 95% confidence interval, and the degree of heterogeneity among the included studies. Sensitivity analyzes were performed to identify the influence of outliers and to identify sources of heterogeneity.Results: Of the 1,114 studies identified from the included databases, 20 studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of occupational-related upper and low back pain in the previous year was 27.1% [95% CI: 18.4, 37.9] and 54.2% [95% CI: 48.2, 60.0], respectively. Based on a subgroup analysis by publication year, study population and countries where the studies are conducted, the prevalence of upper back pain was 43.8% [95% CI: 39.3, 47.7], 34.7% [95% CI: 33.1, 36.2], and 36.2% [95% CI: 33.6, 39.0], respectively, while the prevalence of low back pain was 61.8% [95% CI: 58.9, 64.6], 52.8% [95% CI: 51.3, 54.3] and 55.2% [95% CI: 51.4, 59.0], respectively.Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis found that 54.2% of the included study participants experienced low back pain in the previous year, while 27.1% experienced upper back pain. These problems may be reduced by considering proper observation of the principles of ergonomics in the workplace, and performing physical exercises on a regular basis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuki Seidler ◽  
Erika Mosor ◽  
Margaret R Andrews ◽  
Carolina Watson ◽  
Nick Bott ◽  
...  

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are an essential part of health outcome measurement and vital to patient-centricity and valued-based care. Several international consortia have developed core outcome sets and many of them include PROs. PROs are measured by patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROs and PROMs can be generic or specific to certain diseases or conditions. While the characteristics of generic PROs and PROMs are well recognised as widely relevant and applicable across different domains, diseases and conditions, there is a lack of knowledge on the types of PROs measured by generic PROMs. We also do not know in which disease areas generic PROs and PROMs are commonly used. To date, there has been no systematic review solely focusing on generic PROMs, what they measure and their areas of application. Objectives: This systematic review will identify core PROs measured by generic PROMs used in adult populations and the areas in which they are applied. Methods: We will conduct a systematic review of reviews. The screening process and the reporting will comply with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) 2020 Statement. We will use four databases, Medline [PubMed], CINHAL [Ebsco], Cochrane [Cochrane Library], and PsycINFO [Ovid], and reports from international consortia. Inclusion criteria are systematic reviews, meta-analysis or patient-reported outcome sets developed by international consortia reporting on generic PROMs in adult populations. Articles primarily focusing on patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), children or adolescents, or those not written in English will be excluded. Risk of bias will be assessed by checking if the included articles comply with established guidelines for systematic reviews such as the PRISMA statement. We will extract generic PROMs and PROs measured by these PROMs, and the areas applied from the selected articles and reports. Extracted data and information will be quantitatively and qualitatively synthesised without statistical interference. The quality of the synthesised evidences will be assessed by clarifying the strengths, limitations and possible biases in our review.


Author(s):  
Chanbeom Kwak ◽  
Woojae Han

To prevent intensive noise exposure in advance and be safely controlled during such exposure, hearing protection devices (HPDs) have been widely used by workers. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of these HPDs, partitioned into three different outcomes, such as sound attenuation, sound localization, and speech perception. Seven electronic journal databases were used to search for published articles from 2000 to 2021. Based on inclusion criteria, 20 articles were chosen and then analyzed. For a systematic review and meta-analysis, standardized mean differences (SMDs) and effect size were calculated using a random-effect model. The funnel plot and Egger’s regression analysis were conducted to assess the risk of bias. From the overall results of the included 20 articles, we found that the HPD function performed significantly well for their users (SMDs: 0.457, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.034–0.881, p < 0.05). Specifically, a subgroup analysis showed a meaningful difference in sound attenuation (SMDs: 1.080, 95% CI: 0.167–1.993, p < 0.05) when to wear and not to wear HPDs, but indicated no significance between the groups for sound localization (SMDs: 0.177, 95% CI: 0.540–0.894, p = 0.628) and speech perception (SMDs: 0.366, 95% CI: −0.100–1.086, p = 0.103). The HPDs work well for their originally designated purposes without interfering to find the location of the sound sources and for talking between the workers. Taking into account various factors, such as the characteristics of the users, selection of appropriate types, and fitting methods for wearing in different circumstances, seems to be necessary for a reliable systematic analysis in terms of offering the most useful information to the workers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Parry ◽  
Brittany I Davidson ◽  
Craig Sewall ◽  
Jacob T. Fisher ◽  
Hannah Mieczkowski ◽  
...  

The influence of digital media on personal and social well-being is a question of immense public and academic interest. Scholars in this domain often use retrospective self-report measures of the quantity or duration of media use as a proxy for more objective measures, but the validity of these self-report measures remains unclear. Recent advancements in log-based data collection techniques have produced a growing collection of studies indexing both self-reported media use and device-logged measurements. Herein, we report a meta-analysis of this body of research. Based on 104 effect sizes, we found that self-reported media use was only moderately correlated with device-logged measurements, and that these self-report measures were rarely an accurate reflection of logged media use. These results demonstrate that self-reported measures of the quantity or duration of media use are not a valid index of the amount of time people actually spend using media. These findings have serious implications for the study of media use and well- being, suggesting that cautiousness is warranted in drawing conclusions regarding media effects from studies relying solely on self-reported measures of media use.


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