European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on February 12, 2008
European Heart Journal 2008 29(5):658-664; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehn013
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Acute effects of night-time noise exposure on blood pressure in populations living near airports
1 Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75, Mikras Asias Street, Athens 11527, Greece
2 Environmental Epidemiologic Unit, Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, Piedmont Region, Grugliasco, Italy
3 Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, Lombardy Region, Milan, Italy
4 Cancer Register and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy
5 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
6 Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
7 The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
8 Department of Environmental Hygiene, Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin, Germany
9 Laboratory of Prevention, Nurses School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Received 17 September 2007; revised 11 December 2007; accepted 7 January 2008; online publish-ahead-of-print 12 February 2008.
* Corresponding author. Tel: +30 210 746 2087, Fax: +30 210 746 2205, Email: kkatsouy{at}med.uoa.gr
Aims: Within the framework of the HYENA (hypertension and exposure to noise near airports) project we investigated the effect of short-term changes of transportation or indoor noise levels on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) during night-time sleep in 140 subjects living near four major European airports.
Methods and results: Non-invasive ambulatory BP measurements at 15 min intervals were performed. Noise was measured during the night sleeping period and recorded digitally for the identification of the source of a noise event. Exposure variables included equivalent noise level over 1 and 15 min and presence/absence of event (with LAmax > 35 dB) before each BP measurement. Random effects models for repeated measurements were applied. An increase in BP (6.2 mmHg (0.63–12) for systolic and 7.4 mmHg (3.1, 12) for diastolic) was observed over 15 min intervals in which an aircraft event occurred. A non-significant increase in HR was also observed (by 5.4 b.p.m.). Less consistent effects were observed on HR. When the actual maximum noise level of an event was assessed there were no systematic differences in the effects according to the noise source.
Conclusion: Effects of noise exposure on elevated subsequent BP measurements were clearly shown. The effect size of the noise level appears to be independent of the noise source.
Key Words: Environmental noise Blood pressure Night-time sleep Acute effects Epidemiological study