Nocturnal Road Traffic Noise and Children¡¯s Sleep

Invited paper

Kjell Vegard Weyde

Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Tuesday 2 june, 2015, 14:20 - 14:40

0.4 Brussels (189)

Abstract:
Background and aim Traffic noise is an increasing health problem (WHO, 2011). For example, 25 % of children in Oslo are exposed to a noise level outside their dwelling during day and night that exceeds the recommended average levels (Statistics Norway, 2011). Despite accumulating evidence linking nocturnal traffic noise to disturbed sleep in adults (Pirrera, De Valck & Cluydts, 2010), little has been done to examine this relationship among children (Clark & Stansfeld, 2007). The purpose of the present study is to assess whether there is a relationship between road traffic noise at night and children¡¯s sleep. Material and methods Study population The main study population is 8800 8-year-old children living in Oslo. The children are included in The Norwegian mother and child cohort study (MoBa) Noise exposure estimation and measurement Estimation of road traffic noise levels is done by an experienced acoustician. For ¡Ö30 children, nocturnal noise levels inside and outside their bedroom will be measured with an iPod in order to estimate uncertainty in the noise estimations and improve the ways challenging noise estimation situations are dealt with. Sleep outcomes In the MoBa 8 year-questionnaire mothers were asked: ¡°Approximately how many hours per night does your child usually obtain on weekdays?¡± In addition, ¡Ö300 of the children are also interviewed about their sleep. The interview was developed for this study and contains questions about sleep onset, awakenings during the night, sleepiness, noise annoyance and noise sensitivity. To obtain an objective measure of sleep, sleep is measured with actigraphs for about 30 of the children from the subpopulation. Results Currently, data is being collected. Hopefully some results will be ready for presentation by May 2015.

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