Assessing indoor and outdoor noise quality and associated health impacts at selected schools in Surat, India

Abstract

An optimal ambient environment is crucial for healthy development, yet the excess of vehicles and inadequately planned educational infrastructures compromise cognitive growth in children. This study evaluates the impact of ambient noise on student cognition in five schools situated along city arterial and sub-arterial roads. A total of 717 students from grades 7, 8, 9, and 11 participated. Noise levels were measured in prevailing noisy conditions (PC) and controlled silence conditions (SC) within classrooms using the Kimo dB300 sound level meter. The observed differences in noise levels between PC and SC varied across grades, showing reductions of 4.7 ± 3.5 dB, 6.1 ± 0.7 dB, 6.7 ± 1.3 dB, and 4.4 ± 3.46 dB for grades 7, 8, 9, and 11, respectively. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences in the average noise levels under both conditions. Furthermore, cognitive task performance in PC and SC was significantly different, as evidenced by paired t-tests in tasks such as multiplication, word formation, reasoning, and sentence construction. Dimension reduction techniques identified room acoustics, task difficulty, speech intelligibility, mental deficiency, and annoyance as critical factors affecting learning abilities. Teachers reported that major impacts of noise include annoyance, sleeplessness, headache, and hearing impairment.