The Impact of Daylight and Views on Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients in Cardiac ICUs

Roxana Jafarifiroozabadi (Clemson University)

Being diagnosed with coronary heart diseases such as myocardial infarction (MI) entails adverse health outcomes among patients such as depression, anxiety, pain, sleep disruption, and delirium. There is ample evidence indicating that the presence of daylight can influence these adverse outcomes positively. Nevertheless, none of the studies to date have differentiated the impact of daylight from views on patients' health and recovery. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms that relate daylight exposure to positive health outcomes have not been thoroughly explored in the existing literature.

This study investigates the impact of access to daylight and window views on post-MI patients' length of stay in a cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) through evaluating factors including anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, pain, and delirium.

An IRB approved two-phase study is conducted in a CICU comprised of rooms of the same size with three unique types of daylighting and viewing accommodations including rooms with daylight and no access to window views, windowless rooms, and rooms with daylight and window views. The first phase of the study entails analyzing retrospective patient data. The second phase is a prospective study with a quasi-experimental design in which 36 anticipated patients will be recruited through purposive sampling. The study has already been pilot tested with four patients. Data regarding depression/anxiety, sleep quality, and lighting is collected through questionnaires, actigraphy, and light data loggers respectively. Other data regarding analgesic medication, delirium, and patients' length of stay is obtained from medical records after discharge. The difference between these factors across the rooms will be assessed through a series of t-tests.

Findings from this study will delineate similarities and differences between health outcomes such as length of stay among post-MI patients assigned to rooms with different types of daylighting and viewing accommodations, and thus will inform the design of future CICUs.