Summary Noise is pervasive in everyday life and can cause both auditory and non-auditory health effects. Noise-induced hearing loss remains highly prevalent in occupational settings, and is ...increasingly caused by social noise exposure (eg, through personal music players). Our understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in noise-induced hair-cell and nerve damage has substantially increased, and preventive and therapeutic drugs will probably become available within 10 years. Evidence of the non-auditory effects of environmental noise exposure on public health is growing. Observational and experimental studies have shown that noise exposure leads to annoyance, disturbs sleep and causes daytime sleepiness, affects patient outcomes and staff performance in hospitals, increases the occurrence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and impairs cognitive performance in schoolchildren. In this Review, we stress the importance of adequate noise prevention and mitigation strategies for public health.
Surveys have shown that noise from wind turbines is perceived as annoying by a proportion of residents living in their vicinity, apparently at much lower noise levels than those inducing annoyance ...due to other environmental sources. The aim of the present study was to derive the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure in L(den) and the expected percentage annoyed residents and to compare it to previously established relationships for industrial noise and transportation noise. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. On the basis of available data from two surveys in Sweden (N=341, N=754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N=725), a relationship was derived for annoyance indoors and for annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In comparison to other sources of environmental noise, annoyance due to wind turbine noise was found at relatively low noise exposure levels. Furthermore, annoyance was lower among residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines and higher among residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources.
The mandate of the International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN) is to promote a high level of scientific research concerning all aspects of noise-induced effects on human beings ...and animals. In this review, ICBEN team chairs and co-chairs summarize relevant findings, publications, developments, and policies related to the biological effects of noise, with a focus on the period 2011-2014 and for the following topics: Noise-induced hearing loss; nonauditory effects of noise; effects of noise on performance and behavior; effects of noise on sleep; community response to noise; and interactions with other agents and contextual factors. Occupational settings and transport have been identified as the most prominent sources of noise that affect health. These reviews demonstrate that noise is a prevalent and often underestimated threat for both auditory and nonauditory health and that strategies for the prevention of noise and its associated negative health consequences are needed to promote public health.
Abstract Objective Review of studies published in the last 10 years about women seeking gynecological- or obstetrical care and physician's gender in relation to patient preferences, differences in ...communication style and patient satisfaction. Methods Studies were identified by searching the online databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase and the Cochrane Library. The search strategies ‘gender’; ‘obstetrics’ and ‘gynecology’ were combined with ‘communication’; ‘physician–patient relations’; ‘patient preference’ and ‘patient satisfaction’. Results After screening title and abstract, evaluating full text and quality assessment, 9 articles were included in this review. Most patients preferred a female rather than a male gynecologist–obstetrician. This was partly explained by a more patient-centered communication style used by female gynecologists–obstetricians. Also experience and clinical competence were important factors in choosing a gynecologist–obstetrician. It was not clear whether patient's age or ethnicity influenced patients gender preference. Patient satisfaction increased when gynecologists–obstetricians used a patient-centered communication style. Conclusion Preference for a female gynecologist–obstetrician might be explained by a more patient-centered communication style used by female gynecologists–obstetricians. Using a patient-centered communication style increases patient satisfaction. Practice implications To increase patient satisfaction, gynecologists–obstetricians should learn to integrate patient-centered communication style into the consultation.
Abstract Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often compensate for their motor deficits by guiding their movements visually. A wide range of ocular and visual disorders threatens the patients' ...ability to benefit optimally from visual feedback. These disorders are common in patients with PD, yet they have received little attention in both research and clinical practice, leading to unnecessary – but possibly treatable – disability. Based on a literature search covering 50 years, we review the range of ocular and visual disorders in patients with PD, and classify these according to anatomical structures of the visual pathway. We discuss six common disorders in more detail: dry eyes; diplopia; glaucoma and glaucoma-like visual problems; impaired contrast and colour vision; visuospatial and visuoperceptual impairments; and visual hallucinations. In addition, we review the effects of PD-related pharmacological and surgical treatments on visual function, and we offer practical recommendations for clinical management. Greater awareness and early recognition of ocular and visual problems in PD might enable timely instalment of tailored treatments, leading to improved patient safety, greater independence, and better quality of life.
Microstates are semi-stable voltage topographies that account for most of electroencephalogram (EEG) variance. However, the impact of time of the day and sleep on microstates has not been examined. ...To address this gap, we assessed whether microstates differed between the evening and morning and whether sleep slow waves correlated with microstate changes in healthy participants.
Forty-five healthy subjects were recruited. Each participant underwent six minutes of resting state EEG recordings in the evening and morning, interleaved by sleep EEGs. Evening-to-morning changes in microstate duration, coverage, and occurrence were assessed. Furthermore, correlation between microstate changes and sleep slow-wave activity (SWA) and slow-wave density (SWD) were performed.
Two-way ANOVAs with Microstate Class (A, B, C, and D) and Time (evening and morning) revealed significant Microstate Class*Time interaction for duration (F(44) = 5.571, p = 0.002), coverage (F(44) = 6.833, p = 0.001), and occurrence (F(44) = 5.715, p = 0.002). Post-hoc comparisons showed significant effects for microstate C duration (padj=0.048, Cohen's d = -0.389), coverage (padj=0.002, Cohen's d = -0.580), and occurrence (padj=0.002, Cohen's d= -0.606). Topographic analyses revealed inverse correlations between SWD, but not SWA, and evening-to-morning changes in microstate C duration (r = - 0.51, padj = 0.002), coverage (r = - 0.45, padj = 0.006), and occurrence (r = - 0.38, padj = 0.033).
Microstate characteristics showed significant evening-to-morning changes associated with, and possibly regulated by, sleep slow-waves. These findings suggest that future microstate studies should control for time of day and sleep effects.
N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and choline (Cho) are two brain metabolites implicated in several key neuronal functions. Abnormalities in these metabolites have been reported in both early course and ...chronic patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). It is, however, unclear whether NAA and Cho's alterations occur even before the onset of the disorder. Clinical high risk (CHR) individuals are a population uniquely enriched for psychosis and SCZ. In this exploratory study, we utilized 7-Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) to examine differences in total NAA (tNAA; NAA + N-acetylaspartylglutamate NAAG) and major choline-containing compounds, including glycerophosphorylcholine and phosphorylcholine tCho, over the creatine (Cre) levels between 26 CHR and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects in the subcortical and cortical regions. While no tCho/Cre differences were found between groups in any of the regions of interest (ROIs), we found that CHR had significantly reduced tNAA/Cre in the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) compared to HC, and that the right DLPFC tNAA/Cre reduction in CHR was negatively associated with their positive symptoms scores. No tNAA/Cre differences were found between CHR and HC in other ROIs. In conclusion, reduced tNAA/Cre in CHR vs. HC may represent a putative molecular biomarker for risk of psychosis and SCZ that is associated with symptom severity.
Difficulty sleeping in a novel environment is a common phenomenon that is often described as the first night effect (FNE). Previous works have found FNE on sleep architecture and sleep power spectra ...parameters, especially during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. However, the impact of FNE on sleep parameters, including local differences in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity across nights, has not been systematically assessed. Here, we performed high-density EEG sleep recordings on 27 healthy individuals on two nights and examined differences in sleep architecture, NREM (stages 2 and 3) EEG power spectra, and NREM power topography across nights. We found higher wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO), reduced sleep efficiency, and less deep NREM sleep (stage 3), along with increased high-frequency NREM EEG power during the first night of sleep, corresponding to small to medium effect sizes (Cohen's d ≤ 0.5). Furthermore, study individuals showed significantly lower slow-wave activity in right frontal/prefrontal regions as well as higher sigma and beta activities in medial and left frontal/prefrontal areas, yielding medium to large effect sizes (Cohen's d ≥ 0.5). Altogether, these findings suggest the FNE is characterized by less efficient, more fragmented, shallower sleep that tends to affect especially certain brain regions. The magnitude and specificity of these effects should be considered when designing sleep studies aiming to compare across night effects.
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