Music Therapy Intervention in an Open Bay Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Room Is Associated with Less Noise and Higher Signal to Noise Ratios: A Case-Control Study

Shmuel Arnon; Shulamit Epstein; Claire Ghetti; Sofia Bauer-Rusek; Riki Taitelbaum-Swead; Dana Yakobson

doi:10.3390/children9081187

Music Therapy Intervention in an Open Bay Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Room Is Associated with Less Noise and Higher Signal to Noise Ratios: A Case-Control Study

Children (Basel). 2022 Aug 8;9(8):1187. doi: 10.3390/children9081187.

Authors

Shmuel Arnon^{1

2}, Shulamit Epstein³, Claire Ghetti⁴, Sofia Bauer-Rusek^{1

2}, Riki Taitelbaum-Swead⁵, Dana Yakobson^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neonatology, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba 4428163, Israel.
² Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6329302, Israel.
³ School for Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
⁴ GAMUT-The Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
⁵ Department of Communication Disorders, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
⁶ Music Therapy Department, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark.

Abstract

Background: Noise reduction in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is important for neurodevelopment, but the impact of music therapy on noise is not yet known.

Objective: To investigate the effect of music therapy (MT) on noise levels, and whether individual MT (IMT) or environmental MT (EMT) increases meaningful signal-to-noise ratios (SNR).

Study design: This case-control study was conducted in a level III NICU. Noise levels were recorded simultaneously from two open bay rooms, with a maximum of 10 infants in each room: one with MT and the other without. MT sessions were carried out for approximately 45 min with either IMT or EMT, implemented according to the Rhythm Breath and Lullaby principles. Noise production data were recorded for 4 h on 26 occasions of EMT and IMT, and analyzed using R version 4.0.2 software.

Results: Overall average equivalent continuous noise levels (Leq) were lower in the room with MT as compared to the room without MT (53.1 (3.6) vs. 61.4 (4.7) dBA, p = 0.02, d = 2.1 (CI, 0.82, 3.42). IMT was associated with lower overall Leq levels as compared to EMT (51.2 vs. 56.5 dBA, p = 0.04, d = 1.6 (CI, 0.53, 1.97). The lowest sound levels with MT occurred approximately 60 min after the MT started (46 ± 3.9 dBA), with a gradual increase during the remaining recording time, but still significantly lower compared to the room without MT. The SNR was higher (18.1 vs. 10.3 dBA, p = 0.01, d = 2.8 (CI, 1.3, 3.86)) in the room with MT than in the room without MT.

Conclusion: Integrating MT modalities such as IMT and EMT in an open bay NICU room helps reduce noise. Both MT modalities resulted in higher SNR compared to the control room, which may indicate that they are meaningful for the neurodevelopment of preterm infants.

Keywords: NICU; infants; music therapy; noise; preterm.

Grants and funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.