Road traffic noise is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and all-cause mortality in London

Abstract

AimsRoad traffic noise has been associated with hypertension but evidence for the long-term effects on hospital admissions and mortality is limited. We examined the effects of long-term exposure to road traffic noise on hospital admissions and mortality in the general population.Methods and resultsThe study population consisted of 8.6 million inhabitants of London, one of Europe's largest cities. We assessed small-area-level associations of day- (7:00–22:59) and nighttime (23:00–06:59) road traffic noise with cardiovascular hospital admissions and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in all adults (≥25 years) and elderly (≥75 years) through Poisson regression models. We adjusted models for age, sex, area-level socioeconomic deprivation, ethnicity, smoking, air pollution, and neighbourhood spatial structure. Median daytime exposure to road traffic noise was 55.6 dB. Daytime road traffic noise increased the risk of hospital admission for stroke with relative risk (RR) 1.05 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02–1.09] in adults, and 1.09 (95% CI: 1.04–1.14) in the elderly in areas >60 vs. <55 dB. Nighttime noise was associated with stroke admissions only among the elderly. Daytime noise was significantly associated with all-cause mortality in adults [RR 1.04 (95% CI: 1.00–1.07) in areas >60 vs. <55 dB]. Positive but non-significant associations were seen with mortality for cardiovascular and ischaemic heart disease, and stroke. Results were similar for the elderly.ConclusionsLong-term exposure to road traffic noise was associated with small increased risks of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in the general population, particularly for stroke in the elderly.

Road traffic noise, blood pressure and heart rate: Pooled analyses of harmonized data from 88,336 participants

“…Higher noise exposure has been associated with increased risks for cardiovascular disease (Fecht et al, 2016;Halonen et al, 2015). Noise is generally believed to provoke stress through perceived discomfort (Bluhm et al, 2004), and also to result in subconscious activation of stress systems (Recio et al, 2016).…”

Economic Value of Parks via Human Mental Health: An Analytical Framework

“…Improvements in workplace productivity (Korpela and Kinnunen, 2010;Ghermandi, 2015) may also include extensions to working life through reduced early mortality (Halonen et al, 2015), and reductions in youth unemployment payments (Hosie et al, 2015). Reductions in antisocial behavior for children and young adults carry forward into working life (Scott et al, 2001;D'Amico et al, 2014).…”

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

“…We recently reported an area-level association between road traffic noise and increased risk of strokes in London, UK (Halonen et al 2015b). The observed association is biologically plausible based on an established link between noise exposure and hypertension (van Kempen and Babisch 2012), a major risk factor for stroke (Elliott and Stamler 2005).…”

“…As in all epidemiological noise studies to date, information on daily activities of the participants was not available and was not accounted for in the exposure modelling, which may also have caused some exposure misclassification. However, in this study, we used the same road traffic noise model as in our previous ecological study on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in London (Halonen et al 2015b). The strengths of this study also include use of individual-level information on cIMT, blood pressure and hypertension from two London cohorts, as well as control for possible individual-and area-level confounders such as smoking, area-level deprivation and air pollution.…”

“…For the TRANEX model, night-time exposure was Lnight, which is an average of hourly measures from 23:00 to 6:59. For the categorical analyses, night-time road noise estimates were categorised by 5dBA increments: <55 (reference), 55-60, and >60dBA, like in our previous work (Halonen et al 2015b). We also conducted supplementary analyses using daytime road noise (LAeq16 hour, .…”