Healing Patient Rooms

Healing Patient Rooms; The Effect of Lighting on Recovery and Well-being of Patients

Rationale:

Many study reports described benefits of natural sunlight. It is believed that artificial light can achieve similar benefits as sunlight and can be used to compensate for the lack of sunlight, for instance in north-facing hospital rooms or during wintertime.

The most plausible paths mediating the effects of light are:

• the biological effect of light, relating to circadian biology and the sleep/wake-rhythm;
• the emotional/psychological effects of light, relating to mood/stress and the antidepressant action of light .

Objective:

The project aims to measure, evaluate and quantify the beneficial effects of a dynamic daylight & atmosphere experience in patient rooms for cardiovascular patients during the dark months of the year.

Study design:

The study involves an experiment in which psychological, emotional and clinical parameters of patients in hospital rooms with standard light situation are compared with those of patients in rooms with a dynamic daylight & atmosphere experience.

Study population:

The population includes cardiovascular patients who reside in the general cardiology department of the Maastricht University Hospital (18 patient beds) with an intended minimum length of stay of 3 days, who have given written consent.

Intervention:

Half of the patient rooms on the ward are equipped with special luminaires. In the ceiling, luminaires are installed that offer the basic lighting in the patient room that will automatically and gradually change in light level (100-300 lux) and color temperature (3000-4000 K). This so called daily rhythm light meets the EN12464-1 standard for patient rooms in hospitals. The same luminaires in the ceiling will also offer the light boost by bringing the illuminance to a level of maximal 2000 lux and 7000 K, during a period of two hours in the morning. Besides the ceiling luminaires, a low intensity color cove as well as some white LED spots are added to create a pleasant ambience in the patient room

Main study parameters/endpoints:

The primary study measures are length of stay and quality of recovery expressed by physiological, emotional and clinical parameters. Also the effect on patient satisfaction is determined using pre and post assessments.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression; Sleep; Headache
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: dynamic daylight and atmosphere lighting

Detailed Description

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness:

Regular measurements for patient care will be mainly used as outcome measures. Some of the psychological parameters are measured in regular care (e.g. pain score). Other psychological parameters will be measured with an additional questionnaire (depression, appetite, delirium, sleep quality and sleepiness). A trained research nurse will visit all participating patients in their rooms to assist with completing the questionnaires. This way of data collection will pose a minimal burden on the patients (maximum 30 minutes on daily basis). The risks of the intervention are negligible, because the light level will not exceed outside luminance on a cloudy day and meets all CIE safety standards (ref. CIE S009).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 196
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Netherlands
  • Maastricht, Netherlands, 6202 AZ
    • Maastricht University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- patients admitted to study room

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age under 18 years
• Blindness
• Unability to obtain informed consent
• Dementia

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: lighting room; In the ceiling, luminaires are installed that offer the basic lighting in the patient room that will automatically and gradually change in light level (100-300 lux) and color temperature (3000-4000 K). This so called daily rhythm light meets the EN12464-1 standard for patient rooms in hospitals.	Procedure: dynamic daylight and atmosphere lighting; In the ceiling, luminaires are installed that offer the basic lighting in the patient room that will automatically and gradually change in light level (100-300 lux) and color temperature (3000-4000 K). This so called daily rhythm light meets the EN12464-1 standard for patient rooms in hospitals. The system offers a light boost by bringing the illuminance to a level of maximal 2000 lux and 7000 K, during a period of two hours in the morning. Besides, a low intensity color cove as well as some white LED spots are added to create a pleasant ambience in the patient room. The illuminance is between 50 and 60 lux and, depending on the color choice, the color temperature is 2300 K (relax) or 3800 K (active). The lighting solution used is HealWell of Philips Lighting.
NO_INTERVENTION: control room; Normal lighted patient room

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Length of stay	Does a dynamic daylight & atmosphere experience improve the recovery of cardiovascular patients expressed in length of stay.	participants will be followed for the duration of their stay at the cardiology ward (an expected average of 6 days) and one week thereafter

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
general well-being	Does a dynamic daylight & atmosphere experience increase the general well-being (sleepiness/alertness, cognitive functioning, sleep quality and appetite) and satisfaction of cardiovascular patients?	participants will be followed for the duration of their stay at the cardiology ward (an expected average of 6 days) and two weeks thereafter

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Maastricht University Medical Center
• Collaborators: Philips Lighting Eindhoven
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Petra Kuijpers, MD, PhD, Maastricht University Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): September 1, 2010
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): September 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 14, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 3, 2012
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): January 5, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): January 6, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 5, 2012
• Last Verified: January 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Length of Stay [E02.760.400.480]; Activities of Daily Living [I03.050]
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Headache
• Other Study ID Numbers: GOAL/HH/014/2009