The relation between scores on noise annoyance and noise disturbed sleep in a public health survey

Burden of disease due to transportation noise in the Nordic countries

BACKGROUND

Environmental noise is of increasing concern for public health. Quantification of associated health impacts is important for regulation and preventive strategies.

AIM

To estimate the burden of disease (BoD) due to road traffic and railway noise in four Nordic countries and their capitals, in terms of DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years), using comparable input data across countries.

METHOD

Road traffic and railway noise exposure were obtained from the noise mapping conducted according to the Environmental Noise Directive (END) as well as nationwide noise exposure assessments for Denmark and Norway. Noise annoyance, sleep disturbance and ischaemic heart disease were included as the main health outcomes, using exposure-response functions from the WHO, 2018 systematic review. Additional analyses included stroke and type 2 diabetes. Country-specific DALY rates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study were used as health input data.

RESULTS

Comparable exposure data were not available on a national level for the Nordic countries, only for capital cities. The DALY rates for the capitals ranged from 329 to 485 DALYs/100,000 for road traffic noise and 44 to 146 DALY/100,000 for railway noise. Moreover, the DALY estimates for road traffic noise increased with up to 17% upon inclusion of stroke and diabetes. DALY estimates based on nationwide noise data were 51 and 133% higher than the END-based estimates, for Norway and Denmark, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Further harmonization of noise exposure data is required for between-country comparisons. Moreover, nationwide noise models indicate that DALY estimates based on END considerably underestimate national BoD due to transportation noise. The health-related burden of traffic noise was comparable to that of air pollution, an established risk factor for disease in the GBD framework. Inclusion of environmental noise as a risk factor in the GBD is strongly encouraged.

Community Response to Noise from Hot-Spots at a Major Road in Quito (Ecuador) and Its Application for Identification and Ranking These Areas

Environmental legislation in Ecuador is advancing with the legitimate aspiration of providing citizens with new standards of quality and environmental health. In the context of environmental noise, these legislative advances are based on the experience accumulated in other countries, which is an advantage that must be managed with caution by incorporating local factors into noise management procedures. This study advances two lines of work. The first is to survey the population about their attitude towards noise from a major road to try to detect local factors in the annoyance and sleep disturbances. The second uses this information to compare noise indicators for the detection and ranking of hot-spots from major roads. The interviewees exhibited a high level of annoyance and sleep disturbance due to noise compared with the results of other studies. Results show that there are small differences in the definition of hot-spots when using WHO’s dose–response curves for L_den ≥ 68 dB for and for L_night ≥ 58 dB, in comparison with the curves generated in this study (CS). Regarding the application of both dose–response curves (WHO vs. CS) to the estimation of the population at risk of the harmful effect of nighttime traffic noise (HSD), small oscillations are also observed even when L_night ≥ 58 dB and L_noche ≥ 60 dB are used.

A study on the assessment of traffic noise induced annoyance and awareness levels about the potential health effects among residents living around a noise-sensitive area

The present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the risk factors for traffic noise-induced annoyance and also assess the awareness levels among the exposed population concerning the health impacts caused by traffic noise. Field measurements were made to validate the application of the standard noise models, which were later used to present the acoustical environment and assess the exposure level around a super-speciality hospital surrounded by a residential zone. Results from the noise maps and façade maps revealed that the area was exposed to noise levels exceeding the upper safe limits by more than 10 dB(A). The effect of exposure in the form of annoyance and the awareness level were evaluated using a questionnaire survey in a sample of 565 residents. Attention questions were incorporated in the questionnaire, and the awareness level was evaluated using the mean awareness index score. Respondents living in noisy areas were having a higher risk for annoyance as compared to those living in quiet areas (OR = 4.06; 95% CI = 2.79-5.88). Reporting poor sleep quality, being sensitive to noise, and noise perception at home were the significant risk factors for annoyance. Most of the respondents were classified as having no/little awareness about serious health ailments caused by traffic noise. Lower awareness levels, despite a higher literacy rate and a higher percentage of the young population, imply that there is a need for undertaking mass awareness programmes so that the impacts can be reduced to a minimum, if not eliminated.

Associations and effect modification between transportation noise, self-reported response to noise and the wider determinants of health: A narrative synthesis of the literature

Noise and health guidance to date have focused on the direct links between noise and health outcomes such as annoyance, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and cognitive impairment in schoolchildren. However, noise is a psychosocial stressor, and there are individual studies showing that exposure to noise or the self-reported responses to noise may affect health through interactions with the wider determinants of health and well-being including physical activity, use of green spaces and social interactions. Despite this emerging evidence concerning potential impacts of noise on the wider determinants of health, literature in the field remains dispersed and unsynthesised. This study seeks to synthetize evidence on different relationships between transportation noise, self-reported responses to noise and the wider determinants of health using a systematic review methodology. The search was conducted in Medline, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus on articles published from 2000 to 2017. This led to the review of 76 papers which satisfied the inclusion criteria. Despite strong heterogeneity in the studies' methodologies and indicators used, there is some evidence that noise exposure and responses to noise such as annoyance and disturbance are associated with people's lifestyle, recreational activities as well as the local economy of the neighbourhood. On the other hand, there are some wider determinants of health, mainly those related to the built and natural environment, which modify the relationship between noise exposure and self-reported responses to noise. In particular, greenness, having access to quiet areas, and covering noise sources either visually or acoustically with natural features seems to decrease people's negative responses to noise. Results indicate that transportation noise has the potential to affect health through various pathways, and a holistic approach is needed to capture all the effects.

Noise annoyance during COVID-19 lockdown: A research of public opinion before and during the pandemic

Strict lockdown strategies to stop the spread of COVID-19 have caused a decrease in environmental noise levels and introduced new noise conditions in dwellings. The present study has investigated the impact of the forced lockdown in Turkey on noise annoyances due to traffic, neighbors, and personal dwellings, as well as the concern of being heard by neighbors, and overall dwelling satisfaction in an online questionnaire. The stress and anxiety levels of respondents were also investigated. The survey obtained 1053 respondents. Additionally, environmental noise levels were measured over 24-h at two locations and compared with results before the pandemic. The results clearly exhibit that environmental noise levels and annoyance due to the noise levels dropped significantly. The annoyance drop was larger in previously noisier environments than previously tranquil locations. Noise annoyance due to neighbor noise did not change significantly; however, noise annoyance due to one's own dwelling increased. The results also confirmed an overall increase in dwelling satisfactions indicating a correlation between dwelling satisfaction and lower environmental noise levels. Although the results confirmed that noise annoyance was positively correlated with stress and anxiety levels, the change of annoyance between before and during lockdown was shown to be independent from the stress and anxiety level.

Comparing the Effects of Road, Railway, and Aircraft Noise on Sleep: Exposure⁻Response Relationships from Pooled Data of Three Laboratory Studies

Objectives: Air, road, and railway traffic, the three major sources of traffic noise, have been reported to differently impact on annoyance. However, these findings may not be transferable to physiological reactions during sleep which are considered to decrease nighttime recovery and might mediate long-term negative health effects. Studies on awakenings from sleep indicate that railway noise, while having the least impact on annoyance, may have the most disturbing properties on sleep compared to aircraft noise. This study presents a comparison between the three major traffic modes and their probability to cause awakenings. In combining acoustical and polysomnographical data from three laboratory studies sample size and generalizability of the findings were increased. Methods: Data from three laboratory studies were pooled, conducted at two sites in Germany (German Aerospace Center, Cologne, and Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund). In total, the impact of 109,836 noise events on polysomnographically assessed awakenings was analyzed in 237 subjects using a random intercept logistic regression model. Results: The best model fit according to the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) included different acoustical and sleep parameters. After adjusting for these moderators results showed that the probability to wake up from equal maximum A-weighted sound pressure levels (SPL) increased in the order aircraft < road < railway noise, the awakening probability from road and railway noise being not significantly different (p = 0.988). At 70 dB SPL, it was more than 7% less probable to wake up due to aircraft noise than due to railway noise. Conclusions: The three major traffic noise sources differ in their impact on sleep. The order with which their impact increased was inversed compared to the order that was found in annoyance surveys. It is thus important to choose the correct concept for noise legislation, i.e., physiological sleep metrics in addition to noise annoyance for nighttime noise protection.

Exposure to road traffic noise: Annoyance, perception and associated factors among Brazil's adult population

BACKGROUND

One of the major environmental problems of the modern world is noise. A health-related marker of environmental noise exposure that can be considered a predictor of annoyance is noise sensitivity. The aim of this study was to ascertain the correlation between levels of exposure to road traffic noise in residential areas and the resulting annoyance based on the perception and sensitivity reported.

METHODS

The study involved noise assessment, with the creation of noise maps of the neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, and application of a questionnaire to ascertain the perception of the residents of the neighborhood, regarding the effects of this exposure.

RESULTS

The noise levels at all the measured points were found to exceed the critical level for the area, 55 dB(A). A total of 225 interviews were conducted. Noise-related annoyance was reported by 48.4% of the respondents. Associations were observed between living in areas exposed to traffic noise and feeling annoyed with this noise (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest the importance of reviewing and updating Brazilian public policies regarding environmental noise. We found a high prevalence of annoyance reports, as well as aspects indicative of sensitivity to noise exposure.

Pathways linking residential noise and air pollution to mental ill-health in young adults

BACKGROUND

Recent years have seen growing, but still tentative, evidence of the potential associations of environmental noise and air pollution with mental disorders. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between residential noise and air pollution exposures and general mental health in young adults with a focus on underlying processes METHODS: We sampled 720 students (18-35 years) from one university in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Residential noise (L_Aeq; day equivalent noise level) and air pollution (NO₂) were assessed at participant's residential address by land use regression models. General mental health was measured with a short form of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The following putative mediators were considered: annoyance from environmental pollution, sleep disturbance, restorative quality of the neighborhood, neighborhood social cohesion, and commuting/leisure time physical activity. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the theoretically-indicated interplay between exposures, mediators, and GHQ.

RESULTS

We observed an association between higher L_Aeq and GHQ, in which environmental annoyance and neighborhood restorative quality emerged as key mediators. First, L_Aeq was associated with higher annoyance, and through it with lower restorative quality, and then in turn with lower physical activity, and thus with higher GHQ. Simultaneously, higher annoyance was associated with higher sleep disturbance, and thereby with higher GHQ. NO₂ had no overall association with GHQ, but it was indirectly associated with it through higher annoyance, lower restorative quality, and lower physical activity working in serial.

CONCLUSION

We found evidence that increased residential noise was related to mental ill-health through several indirect pathways. Air pollution was associated with mental health only indirectly.

Low Income as a Vulnerable Factor to the Effect of Noise on Insomnia

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to examine the potential mediating effect of income level on the association between noise exposure and insomnia.

METHODS

706 individuals were evaluated in conjunction with 2014 noise map data from Seoul, South Korea. Cross-sectional analysis was performed to examine differences in noise level according to household income, while three separate logistic regression models were used to examine factors influencing insomnia. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated after adjusting for depression, anxiety, auditory acuity and noise sensitivity in the first model. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic variables in the second model, lifestyle factors and medical illnesses in the third model.

RESULTS

Noise level was significantly associated with an increased risk of insomnia in the low-income group, although no such association was observed in the high-income group. Groups exposed to >60 dB of noise (Lden; day-evening-night equivalent) exhibited a 1.79-fold increase in the incidence of insomnia relative to those exposed to <50 dB. The result was significant after adjusting sociodemographic variables, although not significant when adjusted for lifestyle factors and medical illnesses.

CONCLUSION

Individuals with low income may be more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of noise exposure on health. Various aspects including income should be considered to ascertain the influence of noise on insomnia.

A Population-Based Study on Nighttime Road Traffic Noise and Insomnia

Study Objectives

The aims of the present study were to investigate how nighttime road traffic noise relates to self-reported symptoms of insomnia and sleep medication use.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from the population-based study Health and Environment in Oslo (HELMILO) (2009-2010; n = 13019). The insomnia symptoms difficulties falling asleep, awakenings during the night, and waking up too early in the morning as well as self-reported sleep medication use were included as outcomes. Modeled noise levels (Lnight) were assigned to each participant's home address. For selecting covariates to the statistical model, we used a directed acyclic graph. The associations between noise and sleep were analyzed using logistic regression models.

Results

After adjustment for potential confounders, we found an odds ratio (OR) of 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-1.09) for the association between traffic noise and difficulties falling asleep, in the total study population. For the association between traffic noise and awakenings during the night, the OR was 1.04 (95% CI: 1.00-1.08) and for waking up too early, the OR was 1.06 (95% CI: 1.02-1.11). The effect estimates are given per 5-dB increase in traffic noise level (Lnight). Self-reported sleep medication use was not statistically significantly associated with traffic noise exposure.

Conclusions

In an adult population from Oslo, traffic noise was associated with difficulties falling asleep and waking up too early. These findings indicate that sleep quantity may be compromised for individuals living in areas highly exposed to nighttime traffic noise.

Effects of Wind Turbine Noise on Self-Reported and Objective Measures of Sleep

STUDY OBJECTIVES

To investigate the association between self-reported and objective measures of sleep and wind turbine noise (WTN) exposure.

METHODS

The Community Noise and Health Study, a cross-sectional epidemiological study, included an in-house computer-assisted interview and sleep pattern monitoring over a 7 d period. Outdoor WTN levels were calculated following international standards for conditions that typically approximate the highest long-term average levels at each dwelling. Study data were collected between May and September 2013 from adults, aged 18-79 y (606 males, 632 females) randomly selected from each household and living between 0.25 and 11.22 kilometers from operational wind turbines in two Canadian provinces. Self-reported sleep quality over the past 30 d was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Additional questions assessed the prevalence of diagnosed sleep disorders and the magnitude of sleep disturbance over the previous year. Objective measures for sleep latency, sleep efficiency, total sleep time, rate of awakening bouts, and wake duration after sleep onset were recorded using the wrist worn Actiwatch2® from a subsample of 654 participants (289 males, 365 females) for a total of 3,772 sleep nights.

RESULTS

Participant response rate for the interview was 78.9%. Outdoor WTN levels reached 46 dB(A) with an arithmetic mean of 35.6 and a standard deviation of 7.4. Self-reported and objectively measured sleep outcomes consistently revealed no apparent pattern or statistically significant relationship to WTN levels. However, sleep was significantly influenced by other factors, including, but not limited to, the use of sleep medication, other health conditions (including sleep disorders), caffeine consumption, and annoyance with blinking lights on wind turbines.

CONCLUSIONS

Study results do not support an association between exposure to outdoor WTN up to 46 dB(A) and an increase in the prevalence of disturbed sleep. Conclusions are based on WTN levels averaged over 1 y and, in some cases, may be strengthened with an analysis that examines sleep quality in relation to WTN levels calculated during the precise sleep period time.

The effect of wind turbine noise on sleep and quality of life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Noise generated by wind turbines has been reported to affect sleep and quality of life (QOL), but the relationship is unclear. Our objective was to explore the association between wind turbine noise, sleep disturbance and quality of life, using data from published observational studies. We searched Medline, Embase, Global Health and Google Scholar databases. No language restrictions were imposed. Hand searches of bibliography of retrieved full texts were also conducted. The reporting quality of included studies was assessed using the STROBE guidelines. Two reviewers independently determined the eligibility of studies, assessed the quality of included studies, and extracted the data. We included eight studies with a total of 2433 participants. All studies were cross-sectional, and the overall reporting quality was moderate. Meta-analysis of six studies (n=2364) revealed that the odds of being annoyed is significantly increased by wind turbine noise (OR: 4.08; 95% CI: 2.37 to 7.04; p<0.00001). The odds of sleep disturbance was also significantly increased with greater exposure to wind turbine noise (OR: 2.94; 95% CI: 1.98 to 4.37; p<0.00001). Four studies reported that wind turbine noise significantly interfered with QOL. Further, visual perception of wind turbine generators was associated with greater frequency of reported negative health effects. In conclusion, there is some evidence that exposure to wind turbine noise is associated with increased odds of annoyance and sleep problems. Individual attitudes could influence the type of response to noise from wind turbines. Experimental and observational studies investigating the relationship between wind turbine noise and health are warranted.

The relation between self-reported worry and annoyance from air and road traffic

Negative perceptions such as fear or worry are known to be an important determinant of annoyance. Annoyance caused by noise and odour has been analysed in relation to worry about safety or health due to environmental hazards, using responses to a health survey. In the survey area high environmental impacts come from air and road traffic. The survey results show a correlation between worry due to the airport or passing aircraft and noise and odour annoyance from aircraft (correlation coefficient (c.c.) close to 0.6). For the relation between worry about a busy street and annoyance from road traffic the correlation is lower (c.c. 0.4-0.5). Worries about different situations, such as living below sea level, close to an airport, busy street or chemical industry, are highly correlated (c.c. 0.5-0.9), also for situations that are not obviously related. Personal factors can also lead to more worry: being female, above 35 years of age, having a high risk for anxiety/depression and being in bad health increase the odds for being worried. The results thus suggest that worry about safety or health is correlated to both personal and environmental factors.