(Press-News.org) Living in an area with noisy road traffic may reduce life expectancy, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal.
The findings suggest a link between long-term exposure to road traffic noise and deaths, as well as a greater risk of stroke, particularly in the elderly. The research was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with Imperial College London and King's College London.
Researchers analysed data for 8.6 million people living in London between 2003 and 2010. They looked at levels of road traffic noise during the day (7am-11pm) and at night (11pm-7am) across different postcodes, comparing this to deaths and hospital admissions in each area for adults (aged 25 and over) and the elderly (aged 75 and over).
Deaths were 4% more common among adults and the elderly in areas with daytime road traffic noise of more than 60dB compared to areas with less than 55dB.[1] The researchers say the deaths are most likely to be linked to heart or blood vessel disease (cardiovascular disease). They say this could be due to increased blood pressure, sleep problems and stress from the noise.
Adults living in areas with the noisiest daytime traffic (more than 60dB) were 5% more likely to be admitted to hospital for stroke compared to those who lived in quieter areas (less than 55dB), [2] which went up to 9% in the elderly.[3] Night time noise (55-60 dB) from road traffic was also associated with a 5% increased stroke risk, but only in the elderly.[4]
Lead author Dr Jaana Halonen from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Road traffic noise has previously been associated with sleep problems and increased blood pressure, but our study is the first in the UK to show a link with deaths and strokes. This is the largest study of its kind to date, looking at everyone living inside the M25 over a seven-year period. Our findings contribute to the body of evidence suggesting reductions in traffic noise could be beneficial to our health."
In London more than 1.6 million people are exposed to daytime road traffic noise levels above 55dB, which the World Health Organization defines as a level of community noise that causes health problems.
Co-author Dr Anna Hansell from the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment & Health at Imperial College London, added: "From this type of study, we can't tell for certain what the risks of noise are to an individual, but these are likely to be small in comparison with known risk factors for circulatory diseases like diet, smoking, lack of exercise, and medical conditions such as raised blood pressure and diabetes. However, our study does raise important questions about the potential health effects of noise in our cities that need further investigation."
During 2003-10 a total of 442,560 adults died from all causes, of which and 291,139 were elderly. A total of 400,494 adults were admitted to hospital for cardiovascular problems during the same period, of which 179,163 were elderly. The researchers estimated the link between road traffic noise on these deaths and admissions, taking into account other factors such as individuals' age and sex, as well as neighbourhood characteristics like ethnicity, smoking rate, air pollution, and socioeconomic deprivation.
As the researchers looked at area-level data, they note their findings may not apply to individuals living in those areas as they may have different individual-level cardiovascular risk factors, length of residence in the particular area, time activity patterns including commuting to work, and the direction in which the windows on their residence face varies. However, the researchers say the findings are consistent with a large number of studies linking road traffic noise and hypertension, which is a leading cause of stroke.
INFORMATION:
For more information or to request interviews contact the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine press office on press@lshtm.ac.uk or +44(0)2079272802.
Notes to Editors:
Jaana I. Halonen, Anna L. Hansell, John Gulliver, David Morley, Marta Blangiardo, Daniela Fecht, Mireille B. Toledano, Sean D. Beevers, H. Ross Anderson4, Frank J. Kelly, and Cathryn Tonne. Road traffic noise is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and all-cause mortality in London. European Heart Journal. DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehv216
1. Relative risk 1.04 [95% confidence interval: 1.00-1.07] in adults; relative risk 1.04 [95% confidence interval: 1.00-1.08] in elderly aged over 75 years.
2. Relative risk 1.05 [95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.09] in adults.
3. Relative risk 1.09 [95% confidence interval: 1.04-1.14] in elderly aged over 75 years.
4. Night time road traffic noise 55-60 vs. END
Drinking 3-5 cups of coffee per day could cut an individual's cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality risk by up to 21%, according to research highlighted in a EuroPRevent session report published by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), a not-for-profit organisation devoted to the study and disclosure of science related to coffee and health1.
The finding is significant given that coronary heart disease and stroke remain the primary cause of death across Europe, responsible for 51% of all deaths in women and 42% of all deaths in men.2 Over four million ...
Physicists have found a way to control the length and strength of waves of atomic motion that have promising potential uses such as fine-scale imaging and the transmission of information within tight spaces.
The researchers measured waves called polaritons that can emerge when light interacts with matter. By combining two materials, they produced hybrid polaritons that propagate throughout many layers of a crystalline material and can be controlled with a simple electrical gate. The team, led by Dimitri Basov and Michael Fogler, professors of physics at the University ...
Afghan security forces, like their fellow citizens more generally, do not view the US-led war in Afghanistan as "their war."
This is a primary policy-relevant conclusion reached in one of two new reports issued today by the Costs of War Project at Brown's University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
"Not Their War to Fight: The Afghan Police, Families of their Dead and the American War," by Harvard University Visiting Assistant Professor Anila Daulatzai, draws on four years of anthropologic fieldwork in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, and ...
A new drug may treat epilepsy and prevent tinnitus by selectively affecting potassium channels in the brain, UConn neurophysiologist Anastasios Tzingounis and colleagues report in the 10 June Journal of Neuroscience.
Epilepsy and tinnitus are both caused by overly excitable nerve cells. Healthy nerves have a built-in system that slams on the brakes when they get too excited. But in some people this braking system doesn't work, and the nerves run amok, signaling so much that the brain gets overloaded and has a seizure (epilepsy) or hears phantom ringing (tinnitus). About ...
In a genome-wide association study believed to be the largest of its kind, Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered four regions in the human genome where changes may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.
The researchers say newly identified genetic variants are located at several positions on human chromosomes, including position 17q25.1, which may increase cancer risk by 38 percent for each copy that is present in the genome; position 7p13, which may increase the risk by 12 percent; and position 3q29, which may increase the risk by 16 percent. Position 2p13.3, another ...
Putnam Valley, NY. (June 23, 2015) - Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a condition in which perpetually high blood sugar causes nerve damage, resulting in a myriad of symptoms such as numbness, reduced ability to detect painful stimuli, muscle weakness, pain, and muscle spasms. DN affects up to 60 percent of patients with diabetes, is often the cause of foot ulcers, and can ultimately result in amputations. There is no curative therapy for DN, but a recent study carried out by a team of researchers in the U.S. and Korea has found that laboratory animals modeled with DN can experience ...
In what may be a major leap forward in the quest for new treatments of the most common form of cardiovascular disease, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have found a way to halt and reverse the progression of atherosclerosis in rodents by loading microscopic nanoparticles with a chemical that restores the animals' ability to properly handle cholesterol.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance that clogs, stiffens and narrows the blood vessels, greatly diminishing their ability to deliver blood to the heart muscle and the brain. The condition, known as atherosclerotic ...
The test has produced encouraging results in a clinical study, and will now be tested in a larger trial involving three hospitals in London.
Researchers analysed breath samples of 210 patients using the test. They found that the test can discriminate between malignant and benign oesophageal cancer in patients for the first time.
The test is 90 per cent accurate and provides results in minutes, which can take up to four to six hours to process using other methods. The test can also be applied to detect gastric (stomach) cancer tumours.
According to the researchers, ...
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (June 23, 2015) - Many of us are familiar with bell-shaped curves that describe the distributions of school grades and total annual rainfall, among many other quantities. This ubiquitous distribution results when many points for individual non-correlated quantities are added to produce an outcome.
Interestingly, a very differently-shaped, highly skewed pattern, often called a power law distribution, is also ubiquitous. This skewed distribution is often considered a signature of complex systems, but its origin has never been adequately explained.
A ...
Some strains of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) may have a lower fitness (be less capable of spreading) than drug-susceptible tuberculosis bacteria, according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Louis Grandjean of Imperial College London, and colleagues, compared new tuberculosis cases among household contacts of tuberculosis patients in South Lima and Callao, Peru to determine the relative fitness of MDRTB versus drug-susceptible tuberculosis.
The study followed 1,055 household contacts of 213 individuals with MDRTB infection ...
