Table 2.
Summary of Published Studies Meeting Inclusion Criteria for Noise Exposure and Extra‐Auditory Effects on Humans
| First author | Year | Country | Study design | Noise exposure | Participants | Health outcome | Main results | Key finding | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schmidt, FP | 2021 | Germany | Randomized crossover study | Aircraft noise (mean noise level <45 dbA) 60 or 120 aircraft noise events per night | 70 volunteered participants (mean age: 62.8 ± 7.06 years) | FMD of brachial artery | Control: 10.02 ± 3.75% | Noise exposure group showed significantly lower FMD level than non‐noise exposure group | Circulatory system |
| Noise60: 7.27 ± 3.21% | |||||||||
| Noise120: 7.21 ± 3.58% | |||||||||
| Statistically significant difference between noise scenarios (p < 0.001) | |||||||||
| Dzhambov, AM | 2017 | Bulgaria | Cross‐sectional study | Road traffic noise | 217 patients (aged >18 years) | Hypertension or ischemic heart disease | Higher traffic noise was associated with an increase in SBP (mmHg) [Change (95% CI): 1.11 (0.44, 1.78)] | An increase in SBP were associated with traffic noise and night noise | Circulatory system |
| Increase in SBP was significant among people with CVD in outdoor night noise [Change (95% CI): 2.55 (−0.02, 5.12)] | |||||||||
| Correia, AW | 2013 | USA | Retrospective cohort study | Aircraft noise (>45 dB) | n = 6,027,363 (aged ≥65 years) | Hospitalization admission rate for cardiovascular disease | Area with 10 dB higher noise exposure had a 3.5% higher (95% CI = 0.2%–7.0%) cardiovascular hospital admission rate (Using the 90th centile noise exposure metric) | Higher noise exposure was associated with increased cardiovascular hospital admission rate | Circulatory system |
| Schmidt, FP | 2013 | Germany | Case‐control study | Aircraft noise (mean noise level 60 dBA) 30 or 60 aircraft noise events per night | 75 healthy participants (non‐smokers between 20 and 60 years of age) | FMD of brachial artery | Control: 10.4% ± 3.8% | Noise exposure has significant association with decreased FMD compared to unexposed group | Circulatory system |
| Noise30: 9.7% ± 4.1% | |||||||||
| Noise60: 9.5% ± 4.3% | |||||||||
| Statistically significant difference between noise scenarios (p = 0.052) | |||||||||
| Floud, S | 2013 | Six European Countries (UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and Greece) | Cross‐sectional study | Road traffic noise | 4,861 persons living near seven airports in six European countries (2,404 men, 2,457 women, aged 45–70 years) | Heart disease, stroke | Nighttime average aircraft noise and “heart disease and stroke” was associated after adjustment OR 1.25 (95% CI = 1.03–1.51) 24‐hr average road traffic noise exposure was associated with “heart disease and stroke” OR 1.19 (95% CI = 1.00–1.41) | Significant association between noise exposure and heart disease and stroke has shown | Circulatory system |
| Aircraft noise | |||||||||
| de Kluizenaar, Y | 2013 | Netherlands | Prospective cohort study | Road traffic noise | 18,973 individuals (aged 15–74 years) | Hospital admissions for IHD | Road traffic noise level (10 dB increase in Lden and a5th to 95th percentile interval increase) | Increased road traffic noise is associated with a higher risk of developing ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease | Circulatory system |
| Significantly elevated risk for the incidence of IHD or cerebrovascular disease | |||||||||
| RR 1.12 (95% CI = 1.04–1.21), 1.27 (1.09–1.47) | |||||||||
| Koskinen, HL | 2011 | Finland | Cohort study | Occupational noise (continuous or impulse) in FINJEM | 1,502 men (employed in industry without treated gemfibrozil, aged 40–56 years) | MetS and CHD | Workload and noise increased CHD risk defining MetS with increased blood pressure, glucose, and BMI (RR: 5.21, 2.70–10.05), with elevated BMI, high TG, and low HDL cholesterol (RR: 2.19, 1.11–4.30), and MetS only (RR: 1.20, 0.61–2.35) | Noise exposure is associated with an increased risk of developing CHD, particularly in those with MetS | Circulatory system |
| Floud, S | 2011 | Six European Countries (UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and Greece) | Cross‐sectional survey | Road traffic noise | 4,861 persons living near seven airports in six European countries (2,404 men, 2,457 women, aged 45–70 years) | The use of medication | A 10 dB increase in nighttime aircraft noise exposure was associated with antihypertensive use for the UK (OR: 1.34, 1.14–1.57) and The Netherlands (OR: 1.19, 1.02–1.38) | Increased noise exposure is associated with a higher likelihood of antihypertensive medication use | Circulatory system |
| Aircraft noise | |||||||||
| Sobotova, L | 2010 | Slovakia | Case‐control study | Outdoor noise measured manually | 659 students living in the Bratislava agglomeration (mean age: 22.83 ± 1.56 years) | Cardiovascular risk scores | Cardiovascular risk scores were significantly higher in the exposed group based on the Framingham scores projected to the age of 60, SCORE60 (AOR = 2.72 (95% CI = 1.21–6.15)) and the relative risk SCORE chart (AOR = 2.81 (1.46–5.41)) | Noise exposure is associated with higher cardiovascular risk scores and increased risk of IHD mortality | Circulatory system |
| McNamee, R | 2006 | UK | Case‐control study | Measurement of 8‐hr average daily personal noise exposure | 1,101 case‐control pairs (nuclear power workers, aged 15–50 years) | The risk of IHD | Compared to unexposed men, the ORs for ischemic heart disease mortality among low, medium, and high exposure categories were 1.15 (95% CI = 0.81–1.65), 1.45 (1.02–2.06), and 1.37 (0.96–1.96) | An increased risk of ischemic heart disease mortality is associated with noise exposure | Circulatory system |
| Willich, SN | 2006 | Germany | Case‐control study | Environmental or occupational noise annoyance | 4,115 patients (3,054 men, 1,061 women, age <70) | Incidence of myocardial infarction | Environmental sound level was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction in men (OR: 1.46, 95% CI = 1.02–2.09, I = 0.040) and women (OR: 3.36, 1.40–8.06, p = 0.007) Work sound levels were associated only in men (OR: 1.31, 1.01–1.70, p = 0.045) | Increased level of occupational and environmental noise are associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction | Circulatory system |
| Tomei, F | 2000 | Italy | Case‐control study | Measurement of workplace sound level | 68 hearing‐impaired males who worked at a metal bedframe factory (aged >23 years) | Blood pressure level | Exposed to daily noise level (>90 dBA) compared to workers (<90 dBA) had a higher mean diastolic blood pressure and a higher frequency of diastolic hypertension | Noise exposure above 90 dBA is associated with diastolic HTN | Circulatory system |
| Saha, S | 1996 | India | Case‐control study | Occupational noise (thermal power station) | 156 males (aged 22–58 years) | HR, blood pressure level | Compared to control group, Experimental group showed a significant increase in HR, SBP, and DBP | Exposure to occupational noise is associated with increased HR and BP | Circulatory system |
| Dunbar, C | 2022 | Australia | Randomized crossover study | Wind turbine noise | 23 participants (aged 18–29 years) | EEG | Wind turbine and road traffic noise produced time‐dependent and sound pressure level‐dependent increases in EEG power with significant noise type by sound pressure level interactions in beta, alpha, theta, and delta frequency bands (p < 0.05) | Compared to N2 sleep, the effect of sleep stage on arousal probability had a significant effect with fewer arousals to noise exposure | Nervous system |
| Road traffic noise | Wind turbine noise had significantly lower delta, theta, and beta activity compared to road traffic noise (p < 0.05), and high alpha activity at lower sound pressure levels during N2 sleep compared to road traffic noise | ||||||||
| Beutel, ME | 2016 | Germany | Cross‐sectional study | Noise annoyance (questionnaire) | 14,635 participants (aged 35–74 years) | Depression (PHQ‐9) Anxiety (GAD‐7) | Depression PR (95% CI), Noise annoyance level
|
Increasing levels of noise annoyance were associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. | Nervous system |
| McGuire, S | 2016 | Germany | Case‐control study | Road, rail, and air traffic noise events | 69 participants (aged 18–68 years) | EEG arousal probability | 10% increase in spontaneous EEG arousal probability was associated with a statistically significant 7.7% increase in noise‐induced EEG arousal probability (SE 1.7%; p < 0.0001) | Night noise exposure is associated with increased EEG arousal related to sleep fragmentation | Nervous system |
| Popp, RF | 2015 | Germany | Randomized crossover study | Traffic noise | 10 long‐haul truck drivers (aged 25–50 years) |
|
On noisy nights, greater latencies (p = 0.074) to the REM phase and higher percentages of sleep stage 1 (p = 0.092) were revealed | Exposure to night noise leads to poorer sleep quality with longer latencies to REM sleep and higher percentage of sleep stage 1 | Nervous system |
| Sleep quality was better during nights without noise (p = 0.092) | |||||||||
| Matheson, M | 2010 | Europe | Case‐control study | Aircraft and road traffic noise | 2,844 children (aged between 8 years 10 months and 12 years 10 months) | Classroom‐based tests of cued recall, recognition memory, and prospective memory | Chronic aircraft noise exposure was significantly related to poorer recognition memory (p = 0.0141) Chronic road traffic noise exposure was related to improved information recall (p = 0.0489) and conceptual recall (p = 0.0066) | Chronic exposure to noise was associated with poorer recognition memory | Nervous system |
| Stansfeld, SA | 2010 | Europe | Cross‐sectional study | Aircraft and road traffic noise | 330 children (aged 9–10 years) | Cognitive performance | Night noise exposure was significantly associated with impaired reading (p = 0.03) and recognition memory (p = 0.01) | Exposure to nighttime aircraft noise was associated with lower cognitive performance in children | Nervous system |
| Stansfeld, SA | 2005 | Europe | Cross‐sectional study | Aircraft and road traffic noise | 2,844 children (aged 9–10 years) | Cognitive performance and health in children | Exposure to chronic aircraft noise was linearly associated with impairment of reading comprehension (p = 0.0097) and recognition memory (p < 0.0001), and non‐linearly associated with annoyance (p < 0.0001) | Chronic aircraft and road noise exposure was associated with memory impairment | Nervous system |
| Exposure to road traffic noise was linearly associated with increases in episodic memory (conceptual recall p = 0.0066; information recall p = 0.0489) and annoyance (p = 0.0047) | |||||||||
| Tait, JL | 2019 | Australia | Randomized Controlled Trial | Emergency alarm 105 dB | 16 healthy males (mean age: 25 ± 4 years) | Pro and anti‐inflammatory cytokine response | IL‐4 was 84% significantly greater following night alarm mobilization compared to a night control of gentle awakening | The level of IL‐4 was significantly higher after a night alarm mobilization | Immune response |
| Cai, Y | 2017 | Europe | Cohort | Road traffic noise | n = 144,082, (50,805 Norway residents aged ≥20 years, 93,277 Netherlands health‐related behaviors of people aged 25–50 years) | hsCRP, triglycerides, HDL | Higher daytime noise (5.1 dB(A)) was associated with 1.1% higher hsCRP, 0.7% higher triglycerides, 0.5% higher HDL | High noise level were associated with increased level of hsCRP, TG, HDL | Immune response |
| Pouryaghoub, G | 2016 | Iran | Randomized Controlled Trial | Acute Noise Exposure (90 dBA noise for 20 min) | 50 male volunteers aged 20–40 years | Salivary Cortisol | Salivary cortisol level was significantly increased to 4.17 ng/ml after noise exposure | Acute noise exposure led to a significantly higher salivary cortisol response compared to nonexposed group | Immune response |
| Selander, J | 2009 | Europe | Cross‐sectional study | aircraft noise | 4,861 persons, 2,404 male, 2,457 female, aged 45–70 years | Salivary Cortisol | Exposure to 24‐hr sound level (LAeq, 24‐hr) >60 dB was elevation cortisol level in women | Exposure to aircraft noise was associated with increased level of salivary cortisol in women compared to lesser exposed group | Immune response |
| Evans, G. W | 2000 | USA | Experimental study | Office noise | 40 female clerical workers (mean age: 36.5 years) | Epinephrine, cortisol level, or behavioral aftereffects | Open‐office noise elevated workers' urinary epinephrine levels, behavioral aftereffects | Simulated noise exposure did not result in a significant increase in cortisol levels in women | Immune response |
| Kim, S | 2021 | Korea | Retrospective cohort study | Occupational noise exposure | 43,858 workers | High FBG | Occupational noise was associated with high FBG in male workers, HR: 1.28 (1.16–1.41) | Exposure to hazardous noise was associated with an increased risk of hyperglycemia | Endocrine system |
| Cai, Y | 2020 | UK | Prospective cohort study | Road noise | 504,271 adults from the UK, The Netherlands, and Norway) (mean age: 43–56 years) | Obesity | Obesity OR: 1.06 (1.04–1.08), Central obesity OR: 1.05 (1.04–1.07) | Exposure to road noise was associated with an increased risk of obesity and central obesity | Endocrine system |
| Dzhambov, A. M | 2016 | Bulgaria | Cross‐sectional study | Road traffic noise | 513 residents of Plovdiv city | T2DM | Road traffic noise (Lden, 71–80 dB) was associated with T2DM compared to 51–70 dB) OR: 4.49 (95% CI = 1.38–14.68) | Exposure to road traffic noise was associated with T2DM compare to lesser exposure group | Endocrine system |
| Fisher, JL | 2014 | Sweden | Case‐control study | Occupational and leisure‐time loud noise exposure (questionnaire) | 451 acoustic neuroma cases, 710 controls (aged 20–69 years) | Acoustic neuroma | Association with any loud‐noise leisure activity without (OR: 1.47, 95% CI = 1.06–2.03) Women (OR: 1.74, 1.07–2.81) Men (OR: 1.23, 0.78–1.93) | Acoustic neuroma was associated with loud noise exposure at leisure without hearing protection | Cancer |
| Hours, M | 2009 | France | Case‐control study | Noise exposure at work and leisure activities (questionnaire) | 108 participants (diagnosed with acoustic neuroma, aged 30–59 years) | Acoustic neuroma | Association with loud noise exposure (OR: 2.55, 95% CI = 1.35–4.82), listening to loud music (OR: 3.88, 1.48–10.17), and at noise exposure work (OR: 2.26, 1.08–4.72) | Acoustic neuroma was associated with loud noise exposure at work and leisure | Cancer |
| Continuous and explosive noises were significantly associated with neuroma risk (OR: 3.27, 1.24–8.61; 2.39, 1.17–4.92) | |||||||||
| Edwards CG | 2006 | Sweden | Case‐control study | Occupational and non‐occupational loud noise exposure (questionnaire) | 146 acoustic neuroma cases, 564 controls (aged 20–69 years) | Acoustic neuroma | Loud noise exposure from any source was at increased risk for acoustic neuroma (OR: 1.55, 1.04–2.30) | Acoustic neuroma was associated with any source of loud noise exposure | Cancer |
| Exposure to loud noise from machines, power tools, and/or construction increased the risk for acoustic neuroma (OR: 1.79, 1.11–2.89), as did exposure to loud music (OR: 2.25, 1.20–4.23) | |||||||||
| Bockelbrin, A | 2008 | Germany | Cohort study | Noise annoyance at night or by domestic sources | 336 boys and 316 girls (12 years old) | Asthma | Significantly associated with increased total noise annoyance at night (AOR: 1.5, 1.1–2.1), for noise within the home/apartment (AOR: 3.5, 1.5–8.0), and in or around the house (AOR: 3.3, 1.7–6.3) | The prevalence of asthma in girls associated with increased total noise annoyance at night after adjustment | Respiratory system |
| Niemann, H | 2006 | Europe | Cross‐sectional study | Noise annoyance in the housing environment | Elderly (n = 1,818, aged ≥60 years), Adults (n = 5,101, aged 18–59 years), and children (n = 1,596, aged ≤18 years) | Medically diagnosed asthma, bronchitis | A significantly increased risk for bronchitis was seen in association with strong neighborhood noise annoyance in adults (OR: 1.63; trend p = 0.062) | Noise annoyance was significantly associated with respiratory symptoms and bronchitis | Respiratory system |
| The effects of noise‐induced annoyance from traffic, as well as neighborhood noise, are evident in the respiratory system of children | |||||||||
| Min, J. | 2018 | Korea | Cohort study | Nighttime noise | Gastric ulcer (n = 217,308) | Diagnostic gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer | With increases in the increase in IQR of nighttime noise, HR (95% CI) gastric ulcer: 1.12 (1.10–1.13) duodenal ulcer: 1.17 (1.15–1.20) | Exposure to noise was associated with an increased risk of gastric or duodenal ulcer | Gastrointestinal system |
| Duodenal ulcer (n = 249,513) | |||||||||
| Castle, J. S | 2007 | USA | Experimental study | Hospital noise, conversation babble, and traffic noise for 20 min | 21 male (aged 22–71 years) | GMA | Exposure to hospital noise, traffic noise, and conversation babble decreased 3 CPM activity by 22.9%, 19.0%, and 15.5%, respectively | Exposure to noise caused a significant decrease in gastric myoelectrical activity | Gastrointestinal system |
| Barba‐Vasseur, M | 2017 | France | Case‐control study | Road traffic, rail traffic, pedestrian streets, and fountains | Women (n = 1,506, case = 302, control = 1,204, aged ≥18 years) | Preterm birth | Noise exposure was estimated risk of preterm birth compared with the nonexposed group | The risk of preterm birth was estimated to be associated with noise exposure compared to nonexposed group | Obstetrics |
| OR (95% CI) | |||||||||
| Lden 24 hr > 55 dB: 0.96 (0.72–1.28) | |||||||||
| Lden night >55 dB: 0.93 (0.68–1.28) | |||||||||
| Lden >55 dB: 1.05 (0.77–1.45) |
Note. dB, Decibel; dBA, A‐weighted decibel; OR, Odds ratio; AOR, Adjusted odds ratio; HR, Hazard ratio; PR, Prevalence ratio; SE, Standard error; FMD, Flow‐mediated dilation; PHQ‐9, Patient Health Questionnaire‐9; GAD‐7, General Anxiety Disorder‐7; SBP, Systolic blood pressure; DBP, Diastolic blood pressure; IHD, Ischemic heart disease; CVD, Cardiovascular disease; CHD, Coronary heart disease; Lden, day‐evening‐night noise level; MetS, Metabolic syndrome; FINJEM, Finnish Job‐Exposure matrix; BMI, Body mass index; TG, Triglycerides; HDL, High‐density lipoprotein; WC, Waist circumference; FBG, Fasting blood glucose; EEG, Electroencephalogram; REM, Rapid eye movement; HR, Heart rate; IL, Interleukin; hsCRP, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein; CPM, Cycles per minute; SCORE, Systematic coronary risk evaluation; GMA, Gastric myoelectrical activity; IQR, Interquartile range.