Community noise exposure and stress in children
27 Feb 2001-Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (Acoustical Society of America)-Vol. 109, Iss: 3, pp 1023-1027
TL;DR: Examination of multimethodological indices of stress among children living under 50 dB or above 60 dB (A-weighted, day-night average sound levels) in small towns and villages in Austria found children in the noisier areas had elevated resting systolic blood pressure and 8-h, overnight urinary cortisol.
Abstract: Although accumulating evidence over the past two decades points towards noise as an ambient stressor for children, all of the data emanate from studies in high-intensity, noise impact zones around airports or major roads. Extremely little is known about the nonauditory consequences of typical, day-to-day noise exposure among young children. The present study examined multimethodological indices of stress among children living under 50 dB or above 60 dB (A-weighted, day-night average sound levels) in small towns and villages in Austria. The major noise sources were local road and rail traffic. The two samples were comparable in parental education, housing characteristics, family size, marital status, and body mass index, and index of body fat. All of the children were prescreened for normal hearing acuity. Children in the noisier areas had elevated resting systolic blood pressure and 8-h, overnight urinary cortisol. The children from noisier neighborhoods also evidenced elevated heart rate reactivity to a discrete stressor (reading test) in the laboratory and rated themselves higher in perceived stress symptoms on a standardized index. Furthermore girls, but not boys, evidenced diminished motivation in a standardized behavioral protocol. All data except for the overnight urinary neuroendocrine indices were collected in the laboratory. The results are discussed in the context of prior airport noise and nonauditory health studies. More behavioral and health research is needed on children with typical, day-to-day noise exposure.
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TL;DR: The built environment has direct and indirect effects on mental health, and personal control, socially supportive relationships, and restoration from stress and fatigue are all affected by properties of the built environment.
Abstract: The built environment has direct and indirect effects on mental health. High-rise housing is inimical to the psychological well-being of women with young children. Poor-quality housing appears to increase psychological distress, but methodological issues make it difficult to draw clear conclusions. Mental health of psychiatric patients has been linked to design elements that affect their ability to regulate social interaction (e.g., furniture configuration, privacy). Alzheimer's patients adjust better to small-scale, homier facilities that also have lower levels of stimulation. They are also better adjusted in buildings that accommodate physical wandering. Residential crowding (number of people per room) and loud exterior noise sources (e.g., airports) elevate psychological distress but do not produce serious mental illness. Malodorous air pollutants heighten negative affect, and some toxins (e.g., lead, solvents) cause behavioral disturbances (e.g., self-regulatory ability, aggression). Insufficient daylight is reliably associated with increased depressive symptoms. Indirectly, the physical environment may influence mental health by altering psychosocial processes with known mental health sequelae. Personal control, socially supportive relationships, and restoration from stress and fatigue are all affected by properties of the built environment. More prospective, longitudinal studies and, where feasible, randomized experiments are needed to examine the potential role of the physical environment in mental health. Even more challenging is the task of developing underlying models of how the built environment can affect mental health. It is also likely that some individuals may be more vulnerable to mental health impacts of the built environment. Because exposure to poor environmental conditions is not randomly distributed and tends to concentrate among the poor and ethnic minorities, we also need to focus more attention on the health implications of multiple environmental risk exposure.
1,021 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: Policy-makers and their advisers are provided with technical support in their quantitative risk assessment of environmental noise and can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies.
Abstract: The health impacts of environmental noise are a growing concern. At least one million healthy life years are lost every year from traffic-related noise in the western part of Europe. This publication summarises the evidence on the relationship between environmental noise and health effects, including cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, and annoyance. For each one, the environmental burden of disease methodology, based on exposure-response relationship, exposure distribution, background prevalence of disease and disability weights of the outcome, is applied to calculate the burden of disease in terms of disability-adjusted life-years. Data are still lacking for the rest of the WHO European Region. This publication provides policy-makers and their advisers with technical support in their quantitative risk assessment of environmental noise. International, national and local authorities can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies.
794 citations
TL;DR: Characteristics of the physical environment that influence child development are discussed and behavioral toxicology, noise, crowding, housing and neighborhood quality, natural settings, schools, and day care settings are discussed.
Abstract: Characteristics of the physical environment that influence child development are discussed. Topics include behavioral toxicology, noise, crowding, housing and neighborhood quality, natural settings, schools, and day care settings. Socioemotional, cognitive, motivation, and psychophysiological outcomes in children and youths are reviewed. Necessary methodological and conceptual advances are introduced as well.
710 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that much can be learned from a more integrative framework of how and why animals are affected by environmental noise, and the use of a more mechanistic approach in anthropogenic environments is advocated.
Abstract: Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 1052–1061
Abstract
The scope and magnitude of anthropogenic noise pollution are often much greater than those of natural noise and are predicted to have an array of deleterious effects on wildlife. Recent work on this topic has focused mainly on behavioural responses of animals exposed to noise. Here, by outlining the effects of acoustic stimuli on animal physiology, development, neural function and genetic effects, we advocate the use of a more mechanistic approach in anthropogenic environments. Specifically, we summarise evidence and hypotheses from research on laboratory, domestic and free-living animals exposed to biotic and abiotic stimuli, studied both observationally and experimentally. We hope that this molecular- and cellular-focused literature, which examines the effects of noise on the neuroendocrine system, reproduction and development, metabolism, cardiovascular health, cognition and sleep, audition, the immune system, and DNA integrity and gene expression, will help researchers better understand results of previous work, as well as identify new avenues of future research in anthropogenic environments. Furthermore, given the interconnectedness of these physiological, cellular and genetic processes, and their effects on behaviour and fitness, we suggest that much can be learned from a more integrative framework of how and why animals are affected by environmental noise.
460 citations
Cites background from "Community noise exposure and stress..."
...Children exposed to higher ambient noise levels in their homes self-reported higher stress levels than those from quieter environments (Evans et al. 2001); noisestressed girls appeared particularly likely to suffer from feelings of reduced motivation, highlighting yet again sex differences in…...
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...Chronic exposure to urban noise at home has been associated with elevated resting systolic blood pressure among children, as well as more intense heart rate reactivity in response to the presentation of a novel stressor (Evans et al. 2001)....
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...Loud noise increases cortisol levels in several species, including lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) (plasma; Anderson et al. 2011), humans (urine; Evans et al. 2001), dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) (plasma; Gue et al. 1987) and goldfish (Carassius auratus) (plasma; Smith et al. 2004)....
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...2011), humans (urine; Evans et al. 2001), dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) (plasma; Gue et al....
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...Children exposed to higher ambient noise levels in their homes self-reported higher stress levels than those from quieter environments (Evans et al. 2001); noisestressed girls appeared particularly likely to suffer from feelings of reduced motivation, highlighting yet again sex differences in response to the acoustic environment....
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TL;DR: Autoregressive spectral analysis of the electrocardiogram (EKG) interbeat interval sequence was used to characterize stress-related changes in heart rate variability during sleep in 59 healthy men and women to represent one pathway to disturbed sleep.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE Although stress can elicit profound and lasting effects on sleep, the pathways whereby stress affects sleep are not well understood. In this study, we used autoregressive spectral analysis of the electrocardiogram (EKG) interbeat interval sequence to characterize stress-related changes in heart rate variability during sleep in 59 healthy men and women. METHODS Participants (N = 59) were randomly assigned to a control or stress condition, in which a standard speech task paradigm was used to elicit acute stress in the immediate presleep period. EKG was collected throughout the night. The high frequency component (0.15-0.4 Hz Eq) was used to index parasympathetic modulation, and the ratio of low to high frequency power (0.04-0.15 Hz Eq/0.15-0.4 Hz Eq) of heart rate variability was used to index sympathovagal balance. RESULTS Acute psychophysiological stress was associated with decreased levels of parasympathetic modulation during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement sleep and increased levels of sympathovagal balance during NREM sleep. Parasympathetic modulation increased across successive NREM cycles in the control group; these increases were blunted in the stress group and remained essentially unchanged across successive NREM periods. Higher levels of sympathovagal balance during NREM sleep were associated with poorer sleep maintenance and lower delta activity. CONCLUSIONS Changes in heart rate variability associated with acute stress may represent one pathway to disturbed sleep. Stress-related changes in heart rate variability during sleep may also be important in association with chronic stressors, which are associated with significant morbidity and increased risk for mortality.
351 citations
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1,883 citations
"Community noise exposure and stress..." refers background in this paper
...…of noise have been conceptualized terms of stress, suggesting that chronic noise exposure l to an overload of stimulation that is experienced as an tating, annoying stimulus that interferes with relaxation well as the ability to concentrate~Broadbent, 1971; Evan and Cohen, 1987; Lercher, 1998!....
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TL;DR: A review of experimental and correlational studies of the aftereffects of stress on performance suggests that these effects occur as a consequence of a wide range of unpredictable, uncontrollable stressors including noise, electric shock, bureaucratic stress, arbitrary discrimination, density, and cold pressor.
Abstract: A review of experimental and correlational studies of the aftereffects of stress on performance suggests that these effects occur as a consequence of a wide range of unpredictable , uncontrollable stressors including noise, electric shock, bureaucratic stress, arbitrary discrimination, density, and cold pressor. Moreover, these effects are not limited to a restricted range of stressful situations that involve a lack of predictabilit y and controllability over a distracting stimulus, but they can also be induced by increased task demand. Interventions that increase personal control and/or stressor predictability are effective in reducing poststressor effects. There is also evidence for poststimulation effects on social behavior that generally involve an insensitivity toward others following stressor exposure, Studies of exposure to environmental stressors in naturalistic settings report effects similar to those found in laboratory settings. Several theories (e.g., psychic cost, learned helplessness, arousal) are examined in light of existing evidence. Although some theories receive more support than others, it is suggested that the reliability and the generality of poststimulati on effects occur in part because of a multiplicity of causes.
790 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors illustrate the value of incorporating psychological principles into the environmental sciences by using psychophysics, cognitive, motivational, and affective indices of stress in environmental sciences.
Abstract: This article illustrates the value of incorporating psychological principles into the environmental sciences. Psycho-physiological, cognitive, motivational, and affective indices of stress were mon ...
287 citations
"Community noise exposure and stress..." refers background in this paper
...Am., Vol. 109, No. 3, March 2001 E r nt e d n f yy ly l, l s s dr to ll nd ll- ure s. a- d ss - ss. e s nd extend the one prior finding on chronic, high-intensity airp noise exposure and psychological distress in children~Evans et al., 1995!....
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269 citations