Table A28.
Summary of findings table for the association between aircraft noise exposure and mortality due to ischaemic heart disease: cohort studies.
| Question | Does Exposure to Aircraft Noise Increase the Risk of IHD | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| People | Adult population (men and women) | |||
| Setting | Residential setting: people living in Switzerland | |||
| Outcome | Mortality due to IHD | |||
| Summary of findings | RR per 10 dB increase in aircraft noise level (LDEN) | 1.04 (95% CI: 0.98–1.11) per 10 dB | ||
| Number of participants (# studies) | 4,580,311 (1) | |||
| Number of cases | 15,532 | |||
| Rating | Adjustment to rating | |||
| Quality assessment | Starting rating | 1 cohort study | 4 (high) # | |
| Factors decreasing confidence | Risk of bias | Serious a | Downgrading | |
| Inconsistency | Na b | No downgrading | ||
| Indirectness | None c | No downgrading | ||
| Imprecision | None d | No downgrading | ||
| Publication bias | NA e | No downgrading | ||
| Factors increasing confidence | Strength of association | Small f | No upgrading | |
| Exposure-response gradient | Evidence of a non-significant exposure-response gradient f | No upgrading | ||
| Possible confounding | No conclusions can be drawn g | No upgrading | ||
| Overall judgement of quality of evidence | 2 (low) h | |||
# Since a cohort study was available, we started with a grading of “high” (4); a Aircraft noise levels were available at 100 × 100 m grids and the study suffered from a lack of information about important life style factors; b Only one study was evaluated, so inconsistency was not an issue (see Figure 5.1 of the complete review); c The study assessed population, exposure and outcome of interest. d We considered the results to be precise: Both the number of participants and cases were much larger than 200. The 95% CI did not contain values below 0.75 or above 1.25; e Due to the low number of available effect estimates, it was not possible to test for publication bias or small study bias; f There was evidence of a non-significant exposure-response gradient: We found a non-significant effect size of 1.04 per 10 dB across a noise range of 40 to 60 dB; g We were not able to draw any conclusions whether possible residual confounders or biases would reduce our effect estimate; h We graded the overall quality of evidence as “moderate”. Since only one study was available, we downgraded the overall level of evidence to “low” (2).