Effets du traitement acoustique d’une salle de dialyse sur la qualité de vie des patients

The impairment of quality of life experienced by patients treated with chronic hemodialysis results from many factors, including the care environment. Current regulations have significantly improved reception and treatment conditions for patients, but perhaps insufficient attention has been paid to the noise nuisance associated with dialysis equipment. We therefore found it useful to conduct a study on acoustic parameters in the dialysis room, and to evaluate the effects on perceived quality of life of an acoustic treatment intended to reduce the level of ambient noise. After measurements carried out under standard conditions, adapted noise absorption (devices panels and trellis) were installed in a treatment room of 8 posts hosting 32 volunteer patients, and their effects evaluated by a quality of life questionnaire administered 3 times (before, at the end of one week, and after the removal of the devices), each patient being his own witness. Measurements of ambient noise during dialysis periods and numerical modeling of the room were performed in parallel in order to search for correlations between the subjective changes expressed by the patients and the quantitative noise criteria. The results show that such devices can significantly reduce the perceived acoustic discomfort and their consequences (headaches), and suggest that these improvements are due to the frequential homogenization of the reverberation time in the room and the reduction of the low frequency components induced by the different sources of noise identified.