Long-term noise exposure and the risk for type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading causes for disability and mortality in modern societies. Apart from personal factors its incidence might be influenced by environmental risks such as air pollution and noise. This paper reports a systematic review and meta-analysis on the risk for type 2 diabetes due to long-term noise exposure. Electronic searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Internet yielded 9 relevant studies (5 for residential and 4 for occupational exposure). They were checked against a predefined list of safeguards against bias producing individual quality scores, which were then fed to MetaXL to conduct a quality effects meta-analysis. People exposed at their homes to roughly Lden > 60 dB had 22% higher risk (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.09-1.37) for type 2 diabetes in comparison to those exposed to Lden < 64 dB; when studies reporting contentious exposure categories were excluded, there was still 19% risk (95% CI: 1.05-1.35) for Lden = 60-70 dB versus Lden < 60 dB. In occupational environment there was not significant risk (relative risk [RR] = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.78-1.06) for < 85 dB versus >85 dB. There was no heterogeneity in the two groups (I2 = 0.00). The results should be interpreted with caution due to methodological discrepancies across the studies; however, they are indicative of the close links that noise pollution might have not only to cardiovascular diseases but to endocrine dysfunction as well.

Long-term transportation noise annoyance is associated with subsequent lower levels of physical activity

“…This study adds to the evidence on potential mechanisms of noise towards chronic diseases. In addition to the direct stress pathway, which may be the most relevant during sleep for cardiovascular disease (Münzel et al, 2014), the indirect pathway through persistent noise annoyance and lower PA, could be also important, particularly in emerging noise-related adverse health effects such as obesity and diabetes (Dzhambov, 2015;Eriksson et al, 2014;Oftedal et al, 2015;Pyko et al, 2015). These findings are of public health relevance, because of the importance of PA for health and the prevalence of noise annoyance.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of transportation noise annoyance on PA, a behavioral pathway through which noise may in part affect cardiometabolic diseases (Basner et al, 2011;Dzhambov, 2015;Eriksson et al, 2014;Oftedal et al, 2015;Pyko et al, 2015), in addition to the direct (physiological) stress pathway. In this population-based cohort of adults, reported long-term transportation noise annoyance (mostly related to road traffic) at home was associated with being less active in moderate PA after controlling for a comprehensive set of potential confounders, including other environmental factors.…”

“…They further allowed us to distinguish sourcespecific noise annoyance and explore associations at nighttime (in the bedroom), which is a susceptible period for noise effects due to restoration (Münzel et al, 2014). The most relevant sources seemed to be road traffic and aircraft, for which the literature on cardiometabolic endpoints is also vast Dzhambov, 2015;Eriksson et al, 2014;Ndrepepa and Twardella, 2011;Oftedal et al, 2015;Pyko Fig. 3.…”

“…Long-term exposure to transportation noise has been associated with cardiovascular disease (Babisch, 2014;Dratva et al, 2012;van Kempen and Babisch, 2012;Vienneau et al, 2015), the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide Murray et al, 2012), and could also relate to diabetes (Dzhambov, 2015) and obesity (Eriksson et al, 2014;Oftedal et al, 2015;Pyko et al, 2015). The major mechanism towards cardiovascular diseases may be through the direct physiological stress reaction to the actual level of noise during rest (i.e.…”

A hypothesis study on bionic active noise reduction of auditory organs

“…Noise exposure can lead to not only hearing problem but also multiple system dysfunctions [1][2][3][4][5]. Protective devices such as earplugs and earmuffs have been developed to alleviate insults to recipients.…”