Application of the noise annoyance equivalents model for aircraft, rail and road traffic noise to self-reported sleep disturbance

Abstract

Sleep disturbances caused by noise exposure are the most relevant outcome measured in disability adjusted life years (DALYs). In analogy to the combined effects of noise from multiple sources on annoyance, these are also of interest for sleep disorders. The study “Overall Noise Assessment” Innsbruck examined data from 1031 personal interviews. Aircraft, rail and road noise were correlated. To choose participants combined exposures were clustered into small, medium and severely affected living situations. The effect of demographic features, noise sensitivity, access to a silent façade and other factors on self-reported sleep disturbances was investigated applying bivariate analyses. Exposure-response curves and their 95% confidence intervals with cut-off values of 72% for “highly disturbed sleep” were generated and the results were discussed in comparison to recently published curves. Using source-specific exposure-response relationships, an overall model for evaluating sleep disorders was developed based on the “annoyance equivalents model”. The “total sleep disturbance response” shows an accumulative outcome for each source measured. A protective effect of road traffic noise as background noise for air and railroad sources could not be proven. Both the “Total Sleep Disruption Assessment Model” and the “Dominant Source Model” have a Spearman-Rho of 0.3 and are therefore suitable for use in noise assessment.

Traffic-Related High Sleep Disturbance in the LIFE-Adult Cohort Study: A Comparison to the WHO Exposure-Response-Curves

“…For road and rail traffic, similar risk estimates were observed (road: OR = 2.86, 95% CI 1.92–4.28; rail: OR = 2.67, 95% CI 2.03–3.50 per 10 dB L night increase). Our results are in line with findings from other European cities, which also observed a stronger association for aircraft noise on the HSD risk compared with road and rail traffic [ 16 , 17 , 48 ]. This indicates that aircraft noise is particularly sleep disturbing.…”

“…About 2.7% of participants were classified as being HSD from road traffic noise, 1.2% from rail traffic noise and 2.0% from aircraft noise. Similar prevalence has been reported by Lechner and colleagues for the city of Innsbruck [ 17 ], where the %HSD was 5.5% for road traffic, 1.5% for rail traffic noise and 3.9% for aircraft noise. In the Swiss SIRENE study, a higher HSD prevalence was observed for all traffic sources: the proportion of HSD was 9.3% for road traffic noise, 10.0% for rail traffic noise and 12% for aircraft noise.…”

“…The strongest association was found for aircraft noise followed by rail traffic and road traffic noise. In addition, Lechner and colleagues [ 17 ] established exposure-response functions for aircraft, rail traffic and road traffic noise (with subgroup motorway noise) (L night ) for the city of Innsbruck, Austria. Again, the strongest associations were found for aircraft noise and the weakest for rail traffic noise.…”

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

“…Above 58.2 dB, the %HSD_CS increases enormously, reaching 28.57% of people highly annoyed for L night = 64-65 dB, compared to an approximate percentage of 11.20 according to the WHO's study. However, it is within the confidence intervals of the study by Lechner et al [45] carried out in Innsbruck, in the Inntal valley, although with approximately 10% fewer people annoyed at 65 dB. In the study by Lechner et al, however, the degree of annoyance is greater than in the curves of the WHO and Miedema and Vos [46] along the entire curve, and therefore, theirs shows a different trend than our study.…”

Comparison of Exposed Aggregate Cement Concrete Surface and Stone Mastic Asphalt Surface Noise Emissions by Close-Proximity Method

“…Noise affects not only wildlife living near roads [1][2][3][4][5], but according to the WHO, noise is a very serious harmful factor affecting human health [6,7]. Noise pollution causes various health problems, such as cardiovascular disease [8][9][10][11], stroke [12,13], hypertension [14][15][16], mental health problems, stress [11,17,18] and sleep deprivation [19][20][21][22].…”