Smoke detector with mom's voice wakes up kids faster

THURSDAY, Oct. 25, 2018 (HealthDay News) – A new study reveals that young children are more likely to be woken up by a smoke alarm that uses their mother's voice than one with a typical acute alarm.

The voice alarm from the mother also resulted in much faster evacuation times.

"Children are remarkably resilient to wake up by the sound when they are asleep," explained Dr. Mark Splaingard, co-author of the study, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Nationwide Children's Hospital & # 39; s in Columbus, Ohio.

"Children sleep longer and deeper than adults and need a stronger sound to wake up than adults.For these reasons, children are less likely to wake up and escape a night fire at home, "said Splaingard in a hospital press release.

"The fact that we could find a smoke alarm to reduce the time needed for many children aged 5 to 12 to wake up and get out of the bedroom could save lives," he added.

The study involved 176 children aged 5 to 12 exposed to different smoke alarms at a sleep research center. Three alarms used the voice of the child's mother, while the fourth was the type of acute alarm widely used in homes.

Compared to the tone alarm, a sleeping child was about three times more likely to be woken up by a mother 's voice alarm.

A mother's voice alarm woke 86 to 91 percent of children and prompted 84 to 86 percent to flee from the bedroom, compared to 53 percent and 51 percent respectively for the acute alarm.

The median time to escape was 282 seconds (close to 5 minutes) with the tone alarm, compared to 18 to 28 seconds with a mother 's voice alarm.

The mother's voice alarms were just as effective whether the child's first name was used or not, according to the study published on October 25, 2006. The pediatric journal.

"These new discoveries have brought us closer to finding an effective smoke alarm for kids and convenient for parents," said Dr. Gary Smith, lead author of the study, director of the Research Center. on injuries and hospital policies.

"This study confirmed that a maternal voice alarm is better than an acute tonal alarm to wake up children and make them escape in typical home conditions," Smith said.

The researchers plan to evaluate whether a female or male generic voice is as effective as a mother's voice, and to compare a vocal alarm to a serious tone alarm.

More information

The National Library of Medicine in the United States has more to do on home fire safety.