Statistical analysis
Primary outcome measures were;
1: differences in BKB sentence results in different stimulated
environments; office, ED, ITU and theatre and
2: differences in BKB sentence results with different PPE equipment
scenarios; no PPE, wearing PPE and wearing PPE whilst raising voice
volume.
Secondary endpoints were;
1: measurement of mean change in voice volume in response to increase in
background noise and
2: mean SNRs with different PPE equipment scenarios and environments.
Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics Subscription (IBM, Armonk,
USA). Differences in BKB scores for different PPE equipment simulations
in each hospital environment were calculated using one-way repeated
ANOVA tests. For any environment found to have a statistically
significant result, further comparison of differences in BKB sentence
results with different PPE equipment scenarios were analysed using the
Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered
significant. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used as it compares
dependant rather than independent samples.
Patient and Public Involvement This research was conducted without patient involvement. Patients were
not consulted to develop outcomes or interpret the results as the focus
was staff communication. This may occur if this research is expanded to
include clinician-patient communication in the future.