title: Associations of night-time road traffic noise with carotid intima-media thickness and blood pressure: The Whitehall II and SABRE study cohorts.
abstract: Road traffic noise has been linked to increased risk of stroke, for which hypertension and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) are risk factors. A link between traffic noise and hypertension has been established, but there are few studies on blood pressure and no studies on cIMT.
  
  
  
  To examine cross-sectional associations for long-term exposure to night-time noise with cIMT, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and hypertension.
  
  
  
  The study population consisted of 2592 adults from the Whitehall II and SABRE cohort studies living within Greater London who had cIMT, SBP and DBP measured. Exposure to night-time road traffic noise (A-weighted dB, referred to as dBA) was estimated at each participant's residential postcode centroid.
  
  
  
  Mean night-time road noise levels were 52dBA (SD=4). In the pooled analysis adjusted for cohort, sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, smoking, area-level deprivation and NOx there was a 9.1μm (95% CI: -7.1, 25.2) increase in cIMT in association with 10dBA increase in night-time noise. Analyses by noise categories of 55-60dBA (16.2μm, 95% CI: -8.7, 41.2), and >60dBA (21.2μm, 95% CI: -2.5, 44.9) vs. <55dBA were also positive but non-significant, expect among those not using antihypertensive medication and exposed to >60dBA vs. <55dBA (32.6μm, 95% CI: 6.2, 59.0). Associations for SBP, DPB and hypertension were close to null.
  
  
  
  After adjustments, including for air pollution, the association between night-time road traffic noise and cIMT was only observed among non-medication users but associations with blood pressure and hypertension were largely null.
authors.affiliation: Small Area Health Statistics Unit, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: jaana.halonen@ttl.fi.
authors.forename: Jaana I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Halonen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: hakdehbi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hakim-Moulay
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Dehbi
authors.affiliation: Small Area Health Statistics Unit, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Anna L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hansell
authors.affiliation: Small Area Health Statistics Unit, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gulliver
authors.affiliation: Small Area Health Statistics Unit, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fecht
authors.affiliation: Small Area Health Statistics Unit, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blangiardo
authors.affiliation: MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, King's College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nish
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chaturvedi
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Clinicum, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kivimäki
authors.affiliation: ISGlobal, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
authors.forename: Cathryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tonne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D009624:Noise, Transportation
keywords: Cardiovascular; Cohort study; Epidemiology; Hypertension; Traffic noise