title: Relationship between noise annoyance from road traffic noise and cardiovascular diseases: a meta-analysis.
abstract: Road traffic noise is an important source of noise annoyance in the community. We performed a meta-analysis to assess whether there is an association between noise annoyance from road traffic noise and cardiovascular diseases (arterial hypertension and ischemic heart disease) in adult population. The meta-analysis included studies that: a. had noise annoyance as exposure, quantified either as "annoyed versus non-annoyed" or with various scales collected by standardized questionnaires; b. arterial hypertension or ischemic heart disease as outcome; c. had included only adult population (age >18 years); d. the studies had to have as effect size odds ratios or relative risk. From the individual studies those odds ratios were selected for meta-analysis which compared most distant categories. Eight studies that fulfilled criteria published between 1992 and 2006 were included in the meta-analysis: 6 studies had a cross-sectional design, 1 study had a case-control-design and 1 study had a cohort design. Increased annoyance was significantly associated with arterial hypertension (pooled risk estimate = 1.16, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.29) while the association with ischemic heart disease did not reach statistical significance (pooled risk estimate = 1.07, 95% confidence interval 0.99-1.14). No publication bias was evidenced. The results of this meta-analysis demonstrated the existence of a positive and significant association between noise annoyance from road traffic and the risk of arterial hypertension and a positive yet insignificant association between noise annoyance and the risk of ischemic heart disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, München, Germany.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ndrepepa
authors.forename: Dorothee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Twardella
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D007508:Irritable Mood; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects*