Nocturnal Road Traffic Noise and Children¡¯s Sleep
Invited paper
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.