Room acoustics in dementia care affect staff and patients

All over the world we see demographic changes with regards to age – we are simply living longer. As time goes by we will be challenged by hearing loss, dementia and other age
related conditions. For people with dementia it is said that the hearing – of all the senses – has the highest impact when it comes to quality of life since people with dementia often suffer from extreme noise sensitivity. This can lead to confusion, anxiety and increased stress levels. Furthermore, physiological reactions to sound can result in increased heart rate, high blood pressure and heavy fatigue. All these symptoms can lead to social isolation because the person with dementia simply cannot deal with the noise. This paper investigates two dementia clinics in Denmark and Germany and discusses the sound environments before and after different acoustic treatment. Staff interviews and questionnaires were done before and after the interventions together with acoustic measurements to see if changes in room acoustics had any impact on the end-users. In both Denmark and Germany there are room acoustic guidelines for healthcare facilities and the paper also investigates if these are sufficient when it comes to elderly care.