Understanding Patient Experiences with Overactive Bladder

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Overactive bladder (OAB) is highly prevalent, affecting millions of Americans, and poses a significant symptom burden. The purpose of this study was to understand patient experiences with OAB and the impact of these experiences on OAB treatment. METHOD(S): People with symptoms of OAB were recruited from a tertiary care clinic and from an online health research portal to complete semi-structured interviews regarding their OAB experiences. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and inductively analyzed to identify emerging themes. RESULT(S): We performed 19 interviews and identified several key themes central to the patient experience, including symptom impact and severity, knowledge, stigma, self-efficacy, and regret. We considered these themes along the following stages of the patient's OAB journey. Symptom Development and Awareness: The routine of self-care is insidious and normalized, making realization of a lifestyle that is centered around voiding less obvious to patients, leading to a delay of care-seeking. Participants noted restrictions on all aspects of life. Adjectives used to describe symptom impact included "annoyance, depression, humiliation and desperation." Care-Seeking: Participants expressed coping behaviors during onset and gradual worsening of symptoms, however many recounted a "sentinel event" that heightened their severity perception and served as a cue to action. Routine primary care visit screenings and friend recommendations were additional cues to action. Reasons for careseeking delay included lack of OAB knowledge, stigma, and embarrassment. Experiences with Therapy: Participants recognized that treatment outcomes depended on their engagement. Some individuals regretted their lack of self-advocacy and self-efficacy. Participants highlighted internal barriers (forgetfulness, doubting treatment effectiveness) and external barriers (comorbidities, COVID- 19) to therapy adherence. Among those with high self-efficacy, fear of treatment failure, calendar tools, and social support networks facilitated treatment compliance (Figure 1). CONCLUSION(S): Living with OAB affects patients physically, mentally, and socially. Gaining a better understanding of OAB experiences can help physicians tailor their practice to meet patients' needs.

Towards new acoustic policies in the 'new normal' of the Covid-19 pandemic

In 2020, Turkish Acoustical Society conducted a survey to measure the pandemic's impact on acoustic evaluation of residential buildings. 1053 people participated in this survey and answered to the questions on their noise annoyances before and during the Covid-19. Results indicated an increased acoustical comfort during the lock-downs due to the decreased environmental noise, but also highlighted the importance of interior noises (from neighbouring dwellings and from one's own dwelling). Other studies from all over the world reported similar results for the first wave of the pandemics. After two years of experience, the question of how user behaviour, acoustical perception and expectance have changed is yet to be answered in order to develop correct strategies and strengthen the acoustical policies for accomplishing sustainable cities. This paper introduces the results of the 2020 study and gives an analysis of the current literature on (1) acoustic perception during the pandemics, (2) working from home and its persistency, and (3) changed user habits in dwellings and in cities. The acoustical requirements in the era of 'new normal' and policy implications are discussed. © ICA 2022.All rights reserved

Models of Aviation Noise Impact in the Context of Operation Decrease at Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Air traffic bans in response to the spread of the coronavirus have changed the sound situation of urban areas around airports. This study aimed to investigate the effect of this unprecedented event on the community response to noise before and after the international flight operation at Tan Son Nhat Airport (TSN) in March 2020. The "before" survey was conducted in August 2019, and the two "after" surveys were conducted in June and September 2020. Structural equation models (SEMs) for noise annoyance and insomnia were developed by linking the questionnaire items of the social surveys. The first effort aimed to achieve a common model of noise annoyance and insomnia, corresponding to the situation before and after the change, respectively. Approximately, 1200 responses were obtained from surveys conducted in 12 residential areas around TSN in 2019 and 2020. The average daily flight numbers observed in August 2019 during the two surveys conducted in 2020 were 728, 413, and 299, respectively. The sound pressure levels of the 12 sites around TSN decreased from 45-81 dB (mean = 64, SD = 9.8) in 2019 to 41-76 dB (mean = 60, SD = 9.8) and 41-73 dB (mean = 59, SD = 9.3) in June and September 2020, respectively. The SEM indicated that the residents' health was related to increased annoyance and insomnia.

The new soundscape after the Covid-19 lockdown

We present a pilot study on the perception of noise and noise annoyance from various environmental sources after the COVID-19 lockdown in Serbia. We used an online platform to conduct an anonymous survey on about 190 respondents aged 15 to 75 years from all over the country. After the lockdown, there was a significant increase in the proportion of respondents who were highly annoyed by noise from the typical environmental sources, such as road traffic, air traffic, industrial facilities, and construction works on the streets, compared to the time during the lockdown. At the same time, the proportion of respondents who were highly annoyed by the sirens of ambulance vehicles decreased significantly. However, the most annoying environmental sound during and after the lockdown was that emitted by the ambulance vehicles, which respondents described as "unpleasant”, "horrifying” and "irritating”. The perception of the sounds of nature and church bells dropped significantly after the lockdown, whereas the perception of noise from the neighbors, household members, and indoor sources remained the same. In summary, after the lockdown, respondents perceive the new soundscape as louder, burdened with a cacophony of noises, and subsequently more annoying. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

How do the causal structures of noise annoyance and sleep effects change under the significant decrease in aircraft noise

Many models have been proposed to clarify the interactive effects of acoustic and non-acoustic variables on human perception of noise. Due to the corona pandemic, all flights were closed at the end of March 2020, causing an unprecedented change in the acoustic environment around Tan Son Nhat Airport (TSN). Before the outbreak, TSN was the busiest airport in Vietnam and had severe noise problems. This study focused on determining how acoustic and non-acoustic factors affect community health before and after this change. Approximately 1200 responses were obtained from surveys conducted in 12 residential areas around TSN in 2019 and 2020. Structural equation models (SEM) for noise annoyance and insomnia were developed by linking the questionnaire items of the social surveys. The first effort aims to achieve a common model of noise annoyance and insomnia corresponding to community response to noise before and after the change. It has been found that the degrees of annoyance and insomnia were not reduced, as expected, but increased in 2020. The final constructed SEM indicates that acoustic and non-acoustic factors affected the community health in different structures before and after the noise reduction. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Environmental Noise Annoyance Trends in Selected Locations in Bratislava

The rapid development in traffic density and the economic transformation since 1989 has brought new problems concerning road traffic noise in Slovakia. The aim is to follow the time trends of noise annoyance in monitored localities in Bratislava at time intervals of 10, 20, and 30 years. We used the validated methodology for subjective assessment of noise annoyance in young and healthy individuals, as well as a method of objectification by direct measurement of sound levels. Respondents (n=3,675) were university students, living in the exposed and control dormitories representing a homogenous sample. The sharp increase in traffic noise burden in the exposed area was found at the first 10-year interval (1989-1999) (LAeq=67.5 dB). A slight decrease occurred in 2019 up to LAeq=63.9 dB and during lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic it dropped to LAeq =62.5 dB. A sharp increase in road traffic noise annoyance was observed in the first 10-year interval (ORMH=2.56 (95 % CI=1.93-3.42) vs 6.01 (95% CI=4.97-7.95) with a slightly decreasing trend in 2020-2021. An increase in noise annoyance from entertainment facilities was observed as well. Despite a slightly declining trend, road traffic noise annoyance is still an important issue and there is a need for preventive measures to reduce such exposure in residential areas. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

OCCUCON 2021 Abstracts

The proceedings contain 31 papers. The topics discussed include: occupational health risk assessment (OHRA) tool for estimating occupational health risk;OH IH emerging risk preparedness - shutdown activities;annoyance among staff and noise in a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India: a pilot study;epidemiological study on occupational health psychology in doctors, nurses and physiotherapists in Anand, Gujarat;psychological impact and educational challenges of Covid-19 pandemic among teachers in Goa;practices during Covid-19 pandemic - a case study of refinery in oil and gas exploration industry;respiratory and auditory impairment among sponge iron plant workers, Goa, India: a comparison study;suspected trauma at work place causing axillary vein thrombosis: a case report;health status of workers and their families in selected brick kilns in Anekal Taluk, Bangalore Urban District, Karnataka;and occupational health problems and perceived health hazards among dairy farmers residing in Mugalur gram panchayat, Karnataka: a mixed method study.

NOISE MASKING FOR SOLEMNITY AT THE HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL CEREMONY

On August 6 every year, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is com-memorated in Hiroshima, Japan, to comfort the spirits of the atomic bomb victims and pray for the realization of permanent world peace. However, because various political marches are conducted in and around the venue, demonstrators' voices disturb the cer-emony. Hiroshima City has repeatedly requested that demonstrators lower their volume and change the demonstration route. However, there has been no improvement in this regard. Since 2015, there has been a considerable decrease in demonstrators' disruptions owing to crowds and tents set up as sound barriers. Since 2020, the number of attendees has declined by 90% owing to the COVID-19 pandemic;thus, demonstrators' voices are easily heard in the venue. Previous studies applied active noise control, including high frequencies, to solving this problem. Implementing ANC is difficult because controlling high-frequency sounds in wide-open spaces is complex. In this study, we attempted to reduce demonstrators' noise by masking it with noise acceptable to the ceremony atten-dees in order to keep solemnity. Brown noise was found to be effective in the selection of masking noise. The experimental results confirmed the effective masking of male demon-strators. Therefore, we introduced adaptive masker control to mask all demonstrators and confirmed its effectiveness. © 2023, ICIC International. All rights reserved.

NOISE POLLUTION AND ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

Environmental noise significantly impacts human health and well-being. It is a widespread problem in Europe, where at least one in five people are exposed to harmful levels of noise. Hearing loss is the most known health effect related to noise exposure. There is, however, growing data that links noise exposure to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and stroke. According to some theories, this relationship may be explained by the indirect pathway of noise exposure, which can cause sympathetic and endocrine activation, as well as several cognitive and emotional responses, including annoyance. Noise exposure leads to stress reactions independent of cognitive involvement. There is a possibility that noise exerts its effects directly through synaptic interactions, as well as through cognitive and emotional effects. Epidemiological studies indicate that nocturnal noise exposure has more profound health consequences. Nighttime noise exposure is associated with an increase in heart rate due to sympathetic activation or parasympathetic withdrawal, and with an increase in blood pressure as well as endothelial dysfunction. Hypertension is a common condition and is an important risk indicator for other cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies showed an association between noise exposure, blood pressure and arterial hypertension. Meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies found an increase of hypertension prevalence per 10 dB increase in daytime average road traffic noise level. There is, however, some heterogeneity among these studies. Prospective studies have also found an association between aircraft noise exposure and hypertension, supporting the cross-sectional findings. The analyses, of data from the large Hypertension and Exposure to Noise near Airports (HYENA) study, showed that an increase in nocturnal aircraft noise exposure per 10 dB was associated with an increased incidence of hypertension. The meaningful effect of night-time aircraft noise on arterial hypertension was also observed in the prospective observation of the subset of individuals from that study. In a longitudinal observation of 420 participants, higher aircraft noise exposure during the night significantly associated with the incidence of hypertension. Previous cross-sectional case-control study conducted in 2015, in 2 suburban areas of Krakow, Poland, revealed an increase in blood pressure and arterial stiffness as determined by carotid - femoral pulse wave velocity in individuals exposed to increased aircraft noise levels. However, even short-term noise reduction, as experienced during the COVID-19 lockdown, may reverse those unfavorable effects. As a result of these observations, noise mitigation strategies are important for cardiovascular health.

Analysis and Acoustic Event Classification of Environmental Data Collected in a Citizen Science Project.

Citizen science can serve as a tool to obtain information about changes in the soundscape. One of the challenges of citizen science projects is the processing of data gathered by the citizens, to obtain conclusions. As part of the project Sons al Balcó, authors aim to study the soundscape in Catalonia during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards and design a tool to automatically detect sound events as a first step to assess the quality of the soundscape. This paper details and compares the acoustic samples of the two collecting campaigns of the Sons al Balcó project. While the 2020 campaign obtained 365 videos, the 2021 campaign obtained 237. Later, a convolutional neural network is trained to automatically detect and classify acoustic events even if they occur simultaneously. Event based macro F1-score tops 50% for both campaigns for the most prevalent noise sources. However, results suggest that not all the categories are equally detected: the percentage of prevalence of an event in the dataset and its foregound-to-background ratio play a decisive role.

Negative emotions associated with self-growth among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic appeared globally (1), thus affecting the self-growth of the older population (2). Objective(s): The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the negative emotions felt during the pandemic, as well as their impact on self-growth of 226 older individuals of four nationalities: Mexican, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Method(s): Thus, a transnational qualitative survey was carried out. A content analysis was performed. Result(s): Seven negative emotions were reported, namely: fear, sadness, anger, grief, annoyance, loneliness and shame. These emotions were considerably associated with the following themes: (1) Sharing experiences;(2) Availability of the partner;(3) Spirituality and religion;(4) Be active;(5) Interest in new projects;(6) Civic participation;(7) Sexual activity. Older participants with Mexican and Italian nationality reported that sharing experiences as the most relevant topic, while for the Portuguese and Spanish participants, having a partner available was more important. Conclusion(s): This study demonstrated that negative emotions cooperated with the self-growth of older individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. The heterogeneity of experiences lived by each culture was highlighted, underlining the positive side of negative emotions and their strong connection with the self-growth of the older people. 1.von Humboldt S et al. Smart technology and the meaning in life of older adults during the Covid-19 public health emergency period: A cross-cultural qualitative study. Int Rev Psychiatry, 2020;1-10. 2. von Humboldt S et al. Does spirituality really matter? - A study on the potential of spirituality to older adult's adjustment to aging. Jpn Psychol Res, 56;114-125.

Development and Validation of a New Measure of Work Annoyance Using a Psychometric Network Approach.

Existing measures of the impact of job characteristics on workers' well-being do not directly assess the extent to which such characteristics (e.g., opportunity to learn new skills) are perceived as positive or negative. We developed a measure, the Work Annoyance Scale (WAS), of the level of annoyance that workers feel about certain aspects of the job and evaluated its psychometric properties. Using archival data from two cohorts (n = 2226 and 655) of workers that had undergone an annual medical examination for occupational hazard, we show the usefulness of the network psychometric approach to scale validation and its similarities and differences from a traditional factor analytic approach. The results revealed a two-dimensional structure (working conditions and cognitive demands) that was replicable across cohorts and bootstrapped samples. The two dimensions had adequate structural consistency and discriminant validity with respect to other questionnaires commonly used in organizational assessment, and showed a consistent pattern of association with relevant background variables. Despite the need for more extensive tests of its content and construct validity in light of the organizational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and of an evaluation of the generalizability of the results to cultural contexts different from the Italian one, the WAS appears as a psychometrically sound tool for assessment and research in organizational contexts.

Negative Emotions Associated With Self- Growth Among Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Methods: Thus, a transnational qualitative survey was carried out. A content analysis was carried out. Results: Seven negative emotions were reported, namely: fear, sadness, anger, grief, annoyance, loneliness and shame. These emotions were considerably associated with the following themes: (a) Sharing experiences;(b) Availability of the partner;(c) Spirituality and religion;(d) Be active;(e) Interest in new projects;(f) Civic participation;(g) Sexual activity. Older participants with Mexican and Italian nationality reported that sharing experiences as the most relevant topic, while for the Portuguese and Spanish participants, having a partner available was more important. Background: The Covid-19 pandemic appeared globally (1), thus affecting the self-growth of the older population (2). The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the negative emotions felt during the pandemic, as well as their impact on self-growth of 226 older individuals of four nationalities: Mexican, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that negative emotions cooperated with the self-growth of older individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. The heterogeneity of experiences lived by each culture was highlighted, underlining the positive side of negative emotions and their strong connection with the self-growth of the older people. 1.von Humboldt S et al. Smart technology and the meaning in life of older adults during the Covid-19 public health emergency period: A cross-cultural qualitative study. Int Rev Psychiatry, 2020;1-10. 2. von Humboldt S et al. Does spirituality really matter? - A study on the potential of spirituality to older adult's adjustment to aging.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on aircraft noise levels, annoyance, and health effects in an urban area in Oman.

This study aimed at investigating aircraft noise exposure levels, their annoyance, and potential health effects among communities living within airport catchment areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both field measurements and an online survey approach were used to investigate aircraft noise exposure levels, annoyance, and general health effects among residents living near Muscat International Airport (MCT) in Muscat, Oman, amid the COVID-19 period. The study found a drastic decline in aircraft noise levels due to the introduction of COVID-19 intervention measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, and closure of airports. In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, average daily aircraft noise levels of LAeq (39.9 dB(A)) and Lmax (49.7 dB(A)) was observed compared to the previous year (April-May 2019) of 58.5 and 76.8 dB(A), indicating aircraft noise reductions level of 32% and 35%, respectively. The results of the online social survey among 187 participants showed that most (58.8%) of the respondents did not feel that the level of noise produced by aircraft causes annoyance. During the day, the vast majority of the interviewees did not complain of any annoyance during the morning (45.5%), afternoon (39.6%), and evening (31%) with only < 4% of residents have reported a very high degree of annoyance of during COVID-19 pandemic period. Very few people (17%) did complain of experiencing general health problems while 29% did not know of any potential health effects that could be attributed to aircraft noise exposures. Aircraft noise annoyance complaints among the As-Seeb residents during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic periods were reported to be extremely high reaching about 84% compared to 41% during this current COVID-19 pandemic period. These findings support the need to develop future sustainable noise mitigation policies in order to help reduce noise exposures and improve human health during post-COVID-19 pandemic periods.

Noise complaint patterns in New York City from January 2010 through February 2021: Socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19 exacerbations.

BACKGROUND: Excessive environmental noise exposure and noise annoyance have been linked to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Although socioeconomic disparities in acoustically measured and geospatially estimated noise have been established, less is known about disparities in noise complaints, one of the most common sources of distress reported to local municipalities. Furthermore, although some studies have posited urban quieting during the COVID-19 pandemic, little empirical work has probed this and probed noise complaints during the pandemic. OBJECTIVES: Using over 4 million noise complaints from the New York City (NYC) 311 database, we quantified census tract-level socioeconomic disparities in noise complaints since 2010 and examined how such disparities changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Using data from January 2010 through February 2020, we fit linear mixed-effects models, estimating monthly tract-level noise complaints by the proportion of residents who were low-income, time in months since January 2010, categorical month, their interactions, and potential confounds, such as total population and population density. To estimate COVID-19 pandemic effects, we included additional data from March 2020 through February 2021 and additional interactions between proportion low-income, month of year, and an indicator variable for COVID-19 pandemic onset in March 2020. RESULTS: Census tracts with a higher proportion of low-income residents reported more monthly noise complaints and this increased over time (time × month × proportion low-income interaction p-values < .0001 for all months), particularly in warmer months. Socioeconomic disparities in noise complaints were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic (month × proportion low-income × pandemic era interaction p-values < .0001 for March through November), also in a seasonal manner. DISCUSSION: Since 2010, noise complaints have increased the most in the most economically distressed communities, particularly in warmer seasons. This disparity was particularly exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, contrary to some theories of urban quieting. Community-based interventions to ameliorate noise and noise annoyance, both public health hazards, are needed in underserved communities.

Contributors to Neighbour Noise Annoyance.

Noise from neighbours has been shown to be one of the most noise annoying sources in Germany, but research on the influencing factors for the annoyance ratings is scarce. Therefore, we investigated whether different personal and contextual (social, physical) factors contribute to neighbour noise annoyance to better understand the neighbour noise annoyance situation. A population-representative survey in four areas in Germany was conducted, with each area further stratified according to their density of agglomeration (inner city, urban outskirt, rural area). Randomly selected residents from each area were invited by mail to participate in the study, either online or via a paper-pencil mode. Noise annoyance was assessed for different noise sources (e.g., neighbourhood, road, railway, aircrafts, different types of industry). In total, 1973 questionnaires were completed. We identified several factors to be predictive of neighbour noise annoyance: satisfaction with the neighbourhood, relationship with neighbours, residential satisfaction, noise sensitivity, and density of agglomeration for people living in the inner city in comparison to rural areas. Particularly, social aspects such as the relationship with neighbours and satisfaction with the neighbourhood have been shown to affect neighbour noise annoyance.

Comparative UAV Noise-Impact Assessments through Survey and Noise Measurements.

Possibilities to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly growing. With the development of battery technologies, communication, navigation, surveillance, and autonomous systems in general, many UAVs are expected to operate at relatively low altitudes. Thus, the problem of UAV noise impact on human health and well-being will be more pronounced. In this paper, we conducted noise measurements of two UAVs of different performance (quadrotor and hexarotor) in flying up and down, hovering, and overflight procedures. Respondents of good hearing who were confirmed by audiogram measurement and had participated in the survey during UAV noise measurement gave their subjective assessments on the UAV noise perception. UAV noise measurements and subjective respondents' assessments were analysed and related. UAV noise analysis showed that the parameters measured at the same measurement point for the hexarotor were higher than those for the quadrotor in flying up and down and flying-over procedures. Low frequency noise was present in the noise spectrum of both drones. Participants were able to distinguish between the noise of UAVs and had a generally more negative experience with the hexarotor. Regardless of the noise perception, more than 80% of the respondents believe there are more pros than cons for UAV introduction into everyday life.

The Soundscape of the COVID-19 Lockdown: Barcelona Noise Monitoring Network Case Study.

The lockdown social measures in Spain due to COVID-19 caused a significant decrease in urban noise levels, which was observed in most of the large cities. This paper presents an analysis of the noise levels in Barcelona, Spain, by means of an accurate analysis of the most relevant sensors deployed in the Barcelona Noise Monitoring Network. In this work, we present the LAeq levels in eight different locations from January 2020 to June 2020-from Superblocks to industrial zones-including and detailing all stages of the lockdown. Several comparisons were conducted with the monitoring data available from the former years (2019 and 2018-when available). The results of the analysis in Barcelona show a drastic LAeq reduction (-9 dBA), especially in nightlife areas of the city, moderate to high LAeq change (-7 dBA) in commercial and restaurants areas and a small decrease in LAeq (-5 dBA) in dense traffic areas.