Aircraft noise and quality of life around Frankfurt Airport.
In a survey of 2,312 residents living near Frankfurt Airport aircraft noise annoyance and disturbances as well as environmental (EQoL) and health-related quality of life (HQoL) were assessed and compared with data on exposure due to aircraft, road traffic, and railway noise. Results indicate higher noise annoyance than predicted from general exposure-response curves. Beside aircraft sound levels source-related attitudes were associated with reactions to aircraft noise. Furthermore, aircraft noise affected EQoL in general, although to a much smaller extent. HQoL was associated with aircraft noise annoyance, noise sensitivity and partly with aircraft noise exposure, in particular in the subgroup of multimorbid residents. The results suggest a recursive relationship between noise and health, yet this cannot be tested in cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies would be recommendable to get more insight in the causal paths underlying the noise-health relationship.
ZEUS GmbH, Sennbrink 46, 58093 Hagen, Germany. schreckenberg@zeusgmbh.de
Dirk
D
Schreckenberg
Markus
M
Meis
Cara
C
Kahl
Christin
C
Peschel
Thomas
T
Eikmann
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000401:Aircraft; D059028:Airports; D001290:Attitude; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011788:Quality of Life; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult