Can exposure to noise affect the 24 h blood pressure profile? Results from the HYENA study.
OBJECTIVE; To study the association between exposure to transportation noise and blood pressure (BP) reduction during nighttime sleep.


METHODS
24-h ambulatory BP measurements at 15-min intervals were carried out on 149 persons living near four major European airports. Noise indicators included total and source-specific equivalent indoor noise, total number of noise events, annoyance scores for aircraft and road traffic nighttime noise. Long-term noise exposure was also determined. Multivariate linear regression analysis was applied.


RESULTS
The pooled estimates show that the only noise indicator associated consistently with a decrease in BP dipping is road traffic noise. The effect shows that a 5 dB increase in measured road traffic noise during the study night is associated with 0.8% (-1.55, -0.05) less dipping in diastolic BP. Noise from aircraft was not associated with a decrease in dipping, except for a non-significant decrease noted in Athens, where the aircraft noise was higher. Noise from indoor sources did not affect BP dipping.


CONCLUSIONS
Road traffic noise exposure may be associated with a decrease in dipping. Noise from aircraft was not found to affect dipping in a consistent way across centres and indoor noise was not associated with dipping.
Haralabidis
Alexandros S
AS
Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece.
Dimakopoulou
Konstantina
K
Velonaki
Venetia
V
Barbaglia
Giorgio
G
Mussin
Mauro
M
Giampaolo
Matteo
M
Selander
Jenny
J
Pershagen
Goran
G
Dudley
Marie-Louise
ML
Babisch
Wolfgang
W
Swart
Wim
W
Katsouyanni
Klea
K
Jarup
Lars
L
D000368:Aged; D000401:Aircraft; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects*