Effectiveness of interventions developed to reduce alarm fatigue in intensive care units: systematic review and meta-analysis study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to research on the effect of the interventions developed to reduce alarm fatigue in intensive care units. Methods Three researchers independently searched 14 databases. The databases were scanned to access articles published between 01.01.2010 and 31.12.2022. The Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instruments (JBI-MAStARI) were used to assess methodological quality. The study is preregistered on PROSPERO (CRD42023387649). Results Of the 11632 studies, 19 articles that met the criteria were included in the systematic review, and seven articles were included in the meta-analysis study. While the effect of the strategies applied in reducing alarm fatigue was found to be significant in five articles (p < 0.05). The meta-analysis results showed that strategies implemented to reduce alarm fatigue may have a significant effect (p > 0.05) in reducing nurses' alarm fatigue. Seven of the articles included in the systematic review showed that the implemented interventions indicated that decline in the perception of the existence of non-actionable/false alarms. After the intervention, the proportion of nurses who agreed with the statement that non-actionable/false alarms interrupted patient care increased, while in another study, the number of nurses who believed that alarms were missed and/or responses were delayed increased. Conclusion In this study, the effect size obtained from all articles was not significant and showed that the interventions may not have an effect on reducing alarm fatigue.