Environmental noise in hospitals: a rapid review of trends and possible developments

Research interest in noise in hospital environments has been growing significantly over the years. This is probably due to several aspects, among them: firstly, the concern expressed by the World Health Organization (WHO) about the effects that noise can have on people; secondly, the scientific evidence that has highlighted how noise can affect the clinical outcomes of patients and the work performance of staff. In this paper, a rapid review of the literature published from 2020 to 2024 and indexed in Scopus database is proposed in order to assess research trends and outline possible future developments in the topic.