Traffic Noise Is Pumping Up Your Blood Pressure

Elevated blood pressure contributes more to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and premature death than any other known and modifiable risk factor. It was estimated that over 30% of adults (1.39 billion) worldwide had hypertension and the prevalence is expected to rise. To mitigate the growing burden of hypertension, the identification of its modifiable risk factors at both individual and population levels remains an instrumental strategy. Traffic noise has emerged as an important environmental risk factor for hypertension, with road traffic noise being mostly investigated for the associated health effects.

How Does Traffic Noise Raise Blood Pressure?

Chronic exposure to traffic noise may increase heart rate and cardiac output and rise blood pressure. It could also lead to the development of other cardiovascular risks factors such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and blood clotting factor activation.

Now a new study published in JACC Advances again proves that living near a busy road or if you feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns, and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise.

Previous studies have shown a connection between noisy road traffic and an increased risk of hypertension. However, strong evidence was lacking, and it was unclear whether noise or air pollution played a bigger role.

The new research conducted by the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at Peking University in Beijing, China shows that it is exposure to road traffic noise itself that can elevate hypertension risk.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 240,000 people (aged 40 to 69 years) who started without hypertension. They estimated road traffic noise based on the residential address and the Common Noise Assessment Method, a European modeling tool.

Noisy Roads and Pollution Increase Hypertension Risk

Using follow-up data over a median of 8.1 years, they looked at how many people developed hypertension. Not only did they find that people living near road traffic noise were more likely to develop hypertension, but they also found that risk increased in tandem with the noise “dose”.

These associations held even when researchers adjusted for exposure to fine particles and nitrogen dioxide. However, people who had high exposure to both traffic noise and air pollution had the highest hypertension risk, showing that air pollution plays a role as well.

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These findings can support public health measures because they confirm that exposure to road traffic noise is harmful to our blood pressure. Policymaking may alleviate the adverse impacts of road traffic noise as a societal effort, such as setting stricter noise guidelines and enforcement, improving road conditions and urban design, and investing in advanced technology on quieter vehicles.

The data demonstrated in this study provides a higher quality of evidence to justify the potential to modify road traffic noise and air pollution from both individual and societal levels in improving cardiovascular health. As a follow-up, studies are underway to better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms through which road noise affects hypertension.

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Source-Eurekalert