Associations of night-time road traffic noise with carotid intima-media thickness and blood pressure: The Whitehall II and SABRE study cohorts

Abstract

Word count (including references, figure legends and tables): 5926 2 Word count abstract: 250Running title: Traffic noise and carotid intima-media thickness AcknowledgementWe thank all participating women and men in the Whitehall II Study and the SABRE study, as well as all Whitehall II research scientists, study and data managers and clinical and administrative staff and the SABRE study team who made the study possible. Objectives To examine cross-sectional associations for long-term exposure to night-time noise with cIMT, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and hypertension.Methods The study population consisted of 2592 adults from the Whitehall II and SABRE cohort studies living within Greater London who had cIMT, SBP and DBP measured. Exposure to night-time road traffic noise (A-weighted dB, referred to as dBA) was estimated at each participant's residential postcode centroid.Results Mean night-time road noise levels were 52dBA (SD=4). In the pooled analysis adjusted for cohort, sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, smoking, area-level deprivation and NOx there was a 9.1 µm (95% CI: -7.1, 25.2) increase in cIMT in association with 10dBA increase in night-time noise. Analyses by noise categories of 55-60dBA (16.2 µm, 95% CI: -8.7, 41.2), and >60dBA (21.2 µm, 95% CI: -2.5, 44.9) vs. <55dBA were also positive but non-significant, expect among those not using antihypertensive medication and exposed to >60dBA vs. <55dBA (32.6 µm, 95% CI: 6.2, 59.0). Associations for SBP, DPB and hypertension were close to null.Conclusions After adjustments, including for air pollution, the association between night-time road traffic noise and cIMT was only observed among non-medication users but associations with blood pressure and hypertension were largely null.

Exposure to Road, Railway, and Aircraft Noise and Arterial Stiffness in the SAPALDIA Study: Annual Average Noise Levels and Temporal Noise Characteristics

“…Moreover, both studies were conducted in urban areas, namely, Augsburg, Germany ( Babisch et al 2014a ), and Girona, Spain ( Foraster et al 2014 ). A recent study in another urban area (London, UK) also observed a nonsignificant positive association between annual average road noise levels and atherosclerosis, a cardiovascular end point that may contribute to arterial stiffness ( Halonen et al 2017 ).…”

Community Noise Exposure and its Effect on Blood Pressure and Renal Function in Patients with Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease

“…9 In contrast to hypertension, fewer studies have looked into the association between RTN and blood pressure (BP), showing close-to-null results and lack of a clear exposure-response relationship in the general population, possibly due to exposure misclassifi cation and effect modifi cation by antihypertensive mediation use. [10][11][12][13][14] Several Bulgarian studies conducted in Sofi a evidenced higher prevalence of hypertension and higher BP in people exposed to day-evening equivalent noise level (L eq 6-22 h ) > 60 dB, but they are dated (2000 -2001) and reported unadjusted results. [15][16][17][18] Also of note, previous studies focused on the general population, rather than on patients with prior diagnosis with CVD, who are arguably more susceptible to the deleterious effect of RTN.…”

Epidemiologische Studien zu chronischen Straßenlärm-Expositionen und dem Blutdruck: Ein systematischer Review mit Metaanalysen

“…Zusammenhänge mit dem DBP/SBP wurden in 8 Querschnittsstudien untersucht [8,9,12,18,20,23,34,35]. Die Zusammenhänge wurden ausnahmslos in europäischen Populationen erhoben.…”

“…Für den DBP wurden nicht signifikante, positive Assoziationen mit Straßenlärm in 2 Studien beschrieben [12,20]. Negative Dosis-Wirkungs-Beziehungen wurden in 4 Studien berichtet [8,9,18,34], mit statistischer Signifikanz in einer Studie [9]. In 2 Studien konnte kein Zusammenhang festgestellt werden [23,35].…”