Table 11.

Other Physical Intervention (Type D).

Authors	Study		N, Response Rate & Method	Exposure Levels	Outcome Measure(s)	Did outcome Change with ‘Intervention’? Yes/No Strength of Effect	Comments	Confounders Adjusted for in Analyses
	Nature	Design
Babisch, Wölke, Heinrich & Straff (2014) [42,43]	Germany Effect of quiet side and type of road on blood pressure	Major and secondary roads, quiet side available or not	1770 (Major road 753, Side street 1017) Response Rate not reported	Lden Major road: mean 67 s.d. 7.2 Side street: mean 49 s.d. 4.7	Self-reported hypertension.	11% increase of the risk of hypertension per increment of 10 dB(A) of the road traffic noise level was found Yes 31% higher risk of hypertension along major roads compared to those who lived in side streets In people that lived on major roads, an odds ratio of OR = 1.736 (95% CI = 1.005–2.997, p = 0.048) was found for the extreme comparison between both rooms on the front or the rear side of the house	Location of living room more important than location of the bedroom (not in line with other studies)	Age, gender, education, body mass index, physical activity at leisure, alcohol intake, family history of hypertension and occupants per room
Babish et al. (2012) [36]	(HYENA) study was a large-scale multi-centered study carried out simultaneously in 6 European countries Prevalence of (designed as a hypertension study with air and road traffic sources). Study examined many modifiers. Here only the result wrt quiet side and living room facing the street are reported	Cross-sectional in stratified random samples around 6 airports	4861 (45–70 years old) 30–78% RR	LAeq24 h 45–65 road traffic noise	Hypertension based on blood pressure measurements during home visits (defined as: a systolic BP ≥ 140 or a diastolic BP ≥ 90)	No Location of the bedroom did not result in significantly increased or decreased hypertension (OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 0.98–1.22 vs. OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.94–1.28; interaction p = 0.555) Location of the living room facing the street did not show an increase in the risk of hypertension with increasing road traffic noise level (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.96–1.17)	Samples based on air traffic noise but models adjusted for this	Full models, both continuous noise levels (Air and Road) type of housing location of rooms, shielding due to obstacles, visibility of the postal street, window opening habits, type of windows length of residence, time spent in the living room on workdays, time spent in the bedroom on workdays noise reducing remedies, building modifications to reduce the noise, self-reported hearing problems, rooms per occupant
Lercher et al. (2011) [44]	Oral and telephone interviews by means of a structured questionnaire	Cross sectional	1653 first wave, 252 second wave 35% & 41% RR	Lden 30–78. Calculated.	Self-reported hypertension	No Results show that participants with bedrooms facing toward a quiet yard reveal a clear trend, but non-significant, toward a reduction in hypertension diagnoses in the ALPNAP-study (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.59–1.05).		Age, sex, BMI, family history, education, health status, duration of living, age
Bluhm et al. (2007) [45]	Questionnaire survey	Cross-sectional	667 77% RR	Estimated noise levels dB(A)) annual mean LAeq24 h. Individuals were classified into exposure categories of 5 dBA, from 45 dB(A) to 0.65 dB(A)	Self-reported hypertension	Yes Stronger association between noise and hypertension for those whose bedroom windows was facing the street (OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.22 to 2.70). Also a stronger effect for those who did not have triple glazed windows (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.34)	Note: The effect of window glazing is ‘indirect evidence’ for a path effect.	Age, type of residence, occupation, smoking (others included but not significant)