University Students’ Self-Rated Health in Relation to Perceived Acoustic Environment during the COVID-19 Home Quarantine

Abstract

Background: Online education became mandatory for many students during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and blurred the distinction between settings where processes of stress and restoration used to take place. The lockdown also likely changed perceptions of the indoor acoustic environment (i.e., soundscape) and raised its importance. In the present study, we seek to understand how indoor soundscape related to university students’ self-rated health in Bulgaria around the time that the country was under a state of emergency declaration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Between 17 May and 10 June 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey among 323 students (median age 21 years; 31% male) from two universities in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Self-rated health (SRH) was measured with a single-item. Participants were asked how frequently they heard different types of sounds while at home and how pleasant they considered each of those sounds to be. Restorative quality of the home (the “being away” dimension of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale) was measured with a single-item. A priori confounders and effect modifiers included sociodemographics, house-related characteristics, general sensitivity to environmental influences, and mental health. Our analysis strategy involved sequential exploratory factor analysis (EFA), multivariate linear and ordinal regressions, effect modification tests, and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: EFA supported grouping perceived sounds into three distinct factors—mechanical, human, and nature sounds. Regression analyses revealed that greater exposure to mechanical sounds was consistently associated with worse SRH, whereas no significant associations were found for human and nature sounds. In SEM, exposure to mechanical sounds related to lower restorative quality of the home, and then to poorer SRH, whereas nature sounds correlated with higher restorative quality, and in turn with better SRH. Conclusions: These findings suggest a role of positive indoor soundscape and restorative quality for promoting self-rated health in times of social distancing.

Perception of the acoustic environment during COVID-19 lockdown in Argentina

“…In contrast, soundscapes heavily affected by traffic were described as irritating, unpleasant, disturbing, and disorganized. In that sense, Dzhambov et al (2021) conducted a study to understand how indoor soundscapes related to university students' self-rated health around the time that Bulgaria was under a state of emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They concluded that a restorative environment such as one supplying nature sounds and relatively free of mechanical sounds could contribute to personal coping resources needed to offset stress.…”

“…In Bulgaria, Dzhambov et al (2021) conducted a study to understand how indoor soundscapes related to university students' self-rated health around the time that the country was under a state of emergency declaration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They found that greater exposure to mechanical sounds was consistently associated with worse self-rated health and that nature sounds correlated with higher restorative quality of the home.…”

Group Spatial Preferences of Residential Locations—Simplified Method Based on Crowdsourced Spatial Data and MCDA

“…The level of importance of the criterion of choosing a quiet and peaceful place to live did not change between the study periods. Quiet and peaceful places, especially natural green areas, can relieve stress [85], and mechanical noise adversely affects the well-being of students during lockdown [86]. The preference for the residence location was mainly due to evaluating the level of comfort (convenient commuting, peace and quiet), with the relative importance of these criteria reaching 34.5% and 20.4% respectively for DATE(1), and 33.3% and 20.5% for DATE (2).…”

The Interplay between Housing Environmental Attributes and Design Exposures and Psychoneuroimmunology Profile—An Exploratory Review and Analysis Paper in the Cancer Survivors’ Mental Health Morbidity Context

“…Human-generated sound levels such as talking and walking, as well as nature sounds such as birdsong, through open windows increased within home environments [154]. Still, greater exposure to mechanical noise during home confinement contributed consistently to a resident's worse self-reported health, whereas nature sounds correlated with greater restorative capacity of the home; however, those dwellers having soundproof windows installed in their homes, and therefore more acoustic comfort, reported better overall wellbeing independently associated [153]. In contrast, where construction/public work and neighbourhood noise was reported to become an annoyance for residents, housing characteristics were an important factor of indoor acoustic environment and complaints during lockdown [164,165].…”

“…Residents with access to some environmental affordances at the time of lockdowns experienced better mental health status during COVID-19 (Table 1). Elements included houseplants, home garden access and usage and visibility of greenery and/or blue spaces from the windows [18,[148][149][150][151][152], as well as indoor soundscape prominently coming from nature [153] as mechanical noise like traffic noise reduced [154]. Across several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the UK, as well as New Zealand, US and Mexico, people under lockdown at homes with accessible outdoor spaces and views of nature showed lower symptoms of depression and anxiety [18].…”