Traffic noise raises blood pressure: this is what emerged in a work published in the journal JACC: Advances and conducted at the University of Oxford and the University of Peking.
Previous studies have shown a link between noisy road traffic and increased risk of hypertension. However, solid evidence was lacking and it was unclear which noise or air pollution played a greater role. New research shows that it is precisely exposure to road traffic noise that can increase the risk of hypertension.
Previous studies on the subject were cross-sectional, showing that traffic noise and hypertension were related, but failed to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship. For the new work, the researchers used data from the UK Biobank, which looked at health outcomes over time. The researchers analyzed data from more than 240,000 people (aged 40 to 69) who did not initially have hypertension. They estimated road traffic noise based on home address and the Common Noise Assessment Method, a European tool.
After an average monitoring period of 8.1 years, the researchers looked at how many people developed hypertension. Not only did they find that people who lived in areas with a lot of road traffic noise were more likely to develop hypertension, but also that the risk increased with the ‘dose’ of noise.
These associations held even when the researchers accounted for the negative effect of exposure to fine particles and nitrogen dioxide.
However, people with high exposure to both traffic noise and air pollution had the highest risk of hypertension, showing that air pollution also plays a role.
“Road traffic noise and traffic-related air pollution coexist all around us,” said Jing Huang, lead author of the paper. ‘It is essential to explore the independent effects of road traffic noise, rather than the overall environment.’
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