Associations of road traffic noise with mortality and hospital admissions in London
Invited paper
Imperial College London
Monday 1 june, 2015, 15:00 - 15:20
0.4 Brussels (189)
Abstract:
Background and aims
Previously published studies have found associations of road noise with
hypertension, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, especially
for
stroke. We aimed to examine the chronic effects of road traffic noise on
mortality
and hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease and stroke in a large
general
population.
Methods
The study population consisted of 8.61 million inhabitants in London. We
assessed
small-area level associations of day- (7:00-22:59) and night-time (23:00-
06:59) road
traffic noise with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular
hospital admissions in all adults (≥25 years) with Poisson regression models
applying the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) approach in the
Bayesian
framework. We adjusted the models for age and sex, area-level deprivation,
ethnicity, smoking, air pollution and a random effect.
Results
Mean daytime exposure to road traffic noise was 55.6 dB.
Daytime noise was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in
adults;
relative risks (RR) for all-cause mortality were 1.04 (95% CI 1.00-1.07) in
areas
with daytime road noise >60 dB vs. <55 dB.
Exposure to daytime road traffic noise also increased the risk of hospital
admission
for stroke with RR 1.05 (95% CI 1.02-1.09) in areas >60 dB vs. <55 dB.
Night-time noise was not associated with road traffic noise in adults of all
ages.
Conclusions
This is the largest study to date to investigate environmental noise and
cardiovascular disease. It suggests that road traffic noise is associated
with small
increased risks of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease.