IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i17p6175-d403965.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Traffic Noise and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Janice Hegewald

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
    Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, Thüringer Weg 9, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany
    Contributed equally.)

  • Melanie Schubert

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
    Contributed equally.)

  • Alice Freiberg

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany)

  • Karla Romero Starke

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
    Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, Thüringer Weg 9, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany)

  • Franziska Augustin

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany)

  • Steffi G. Riedel-Heller

    (Institute for Social Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Public Health, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany)

  • Hajo Zeeb

    (Department of Prevention and Evaluation, Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology—BIPS, 28359 Bremen, Germany
    Health Sciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany)

  • Andreas Seidler

    (Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany)

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that traffic noise may negatively impact mental health. However, existing systematic reviews provide an incomplete overview of the effects of all traffic noise sources on mental health. We conducted a systematic literature search and summarized the evidence for road, railway, or aircraft noise-related risks of depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, and dementia among adults. We included 31 studies (26 on depression and/or anxiety disorders, 5 on dementia). The meta-analysis of five aircraft noise studies found that depression risk increased significantly by 12% per 10 dB L DEN (Effect Size = 1.12, 95% CI 1.02–1.23). The meta-analyses of road (11 studies) and railway traffic noise (3 studies) indicated 2–3% (not statistically significant) increases in depression risk per 10 dB L DEN . Results for road traffic noise related anxiety were similar. We did not find enough studies to meta-analyze anxiety and railway or aircraft noise, and dementia/ cognitive impairment and any traffic noise. In conclusion, aircraft noise exposure increases the risk for depression. Otherwise, we did not detect statistically significant risk increases due to road and railway traffic noise or for anxiety. More research on the association of cognitive disorders and traffic noise is required. Public policies to reduce environmental traffic noise might not only increase wellness (by reducing noise-induced annoyance), but might contribute to the prevention of depression and anxiety disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Janice Hegewald & Melanie Schubert & Alice Freiberg & Karla Romero Starke & Franziska Augustin & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller & Hajo Zeeb & Andreas Seidler, 2020. "Traffic Noise and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-26, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6175-:d:403965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6175/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6175/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mathias Basner & Sarah McGuire, 2018. "WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-45, March.
    2. Melanie Schubert & Janice Hegewald & Alice Freiberg & Karla Romero Starke & Franziska Augustin & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller & Hajo Zeeb & Andreas Seidler, 2019. "Behavioral and Emotional Disorders and Transportation Noise among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Kateryna B. Fuks & Claudia Wigmann & Hicran Altug & Tamara Schikowski, 2019. "Road Traffic Noise at the Residence, Annoyance, and Cognitive Function in Elderly Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-12, May.
    4. Clémence Baudin & Marie Lefèvre & Patricia Champelovier & Jacques Lambert & Bernard Laumon & Anne-Sophie Evrard, 2018. "Aircraft Noise and Psychological Ill-Health: The Results of a Cross-Sectional Study in France," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Charlotte Clark & Katarina Paunovic, 2018. "WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Cognition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Charlotte Clark & Katarina Paunovic, 2018. "WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Quality of Life, Wellbeing and Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-27, October.
    7. Rainer Guski & Dirk Schreckenberg & Rudolf Schuemer, 2017. "WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Annoyance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-39, December.
    8. Enembe Oku Okokon & Anu W. Turunen & Sari Ung-Lanki & Anna-Kaisa Vartiainen & Pekka Tiittanen & Timo Lanki, 2015. "Road-Traffic Noise: Annoyance, Risk Perception, and Noise Sensitivity in the Finnish Adult Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-23, May.
    9. Eva-Maria Elmenhorst & Barbara Griefahn & Vinzent Rolny & Mathias Basner, 2019. "Comparing the Effects of Road, Railway, and Aircraft Noise on Sleep: Exposure–Response Relationships from Pooled Data of Three Laboratory Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-13, March.
    10. Angel M. Dzhambov & Peter Lercher, 2019. "Road Traffic Noise Exposure and Depression/Anxiety: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-22, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tallal Abdel Karim Bouzir & Djihed Berkouk & Juan Miguel Barrigón Morillas & Guillermo Rey-Gozalo & David Montes González, 2024. "Noise Pollution Studies in the Arab World: A Scientometric Analysis and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Ane Arregi & Aitana Lertxundi & Oscar Vegas & Gonzalo García-Baquero & Jesus Ibarluzea & Asier Anabitarte & Ziortza Barroeta & Alba Jimeno-Romero & Mikel Subiza-Pérez & Nerea Lertxundi, 2022. "Environmental Noise Exposure and Sleep Habits among Children in a Cohort from Northern Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Janice Hegewald & Melanie Schubert & Matthias Lochmann & Andreas Seidler, 2021. "The Burden of Disease Due to Road Traffic Noise in Hesse, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Christian A. Mikutta & Charlotte Pervilhac & Hansjörg Znoj & Andrea Federspiel & Thomas J. Müller, 2022. "The Impact of Foehn Wind on Mental Distress among Patients in a Swiss Psychiatric Hospital," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-11, August.
    5. Larissa Samaan & Leonie Klock & Sandra Weber & Mirjam Reidick & Leonie Ascone & Simone Kühn, 2024. "Low-Level Visual Features of Window Views Contribute to Perceived Naturalness and Mental Health Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(5), pages 1-35, May.
    6. Beat Schäffer & Reto Pieren & Kurt Heutschi & Jean Marc Wunderli & Stefan Becker, 2021. "Drone Noise Emission Characteristics and Noise Effects on Humans—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-27, June.
    7. Kimon Krenz & Ashley Dhanani & Rosemary R. C. McEachan & Kuldeep Sohal & John Wright & Laura Vaughan, 2023. "Linking the Urban Environment and Health: An Innovative Methodology for Measuring Individual-Level Environmental Exposures," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-22, January.
    8. Dominik Hauptvogel & Dirk Schreckenberg & Tobias Rothmund & Marie-Therese Schmitz & Susanne Bartels, 2023. "Being a Fair Neighbor—Towards a Psychometric Inventory to Assess Fairness-Related Perceptions of Airports by Residents—Development and Validation of the Aircraft Noise-Related Fairness Inventory (fAIR," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-21, June.
    9. Xiangpu Gong & Benjamin Fenech & Claire Blackmore & Yingxin Chen & Georgia Rodgers & John Gulliver & Anna L. Hansell, 2022. "Association between Noise Annoyance and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-25, February.
    10. Melanie Schubert & Karla Romero Starke & Julia Gerlach & Matthias Reusche & Pauline Kaboth & Wolfram Schmidt & Dieter Friedemann & Janice Hegewald & Hajo Zeeb & Andrea Zülke & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller , 2023. "Traffic-Related High Sleep Disturbance in the LIFE-Adult Cohort Study: A Comparison to the WHO Exposure-Response-Curves," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-17, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Charlotte Clark & Clare Crumpler & Hilary Notley, 2020. "Evidence for Environmental Noise Effects on Health for the United Kingdom Policy Context: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Environmental Noise on Mental Health, Wellbeing, Quality of Life, Cancer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-34, January.
    2. Owen Douglas & Enda Murphy, 2020. "Assessing the Treatment of Potential Effect Modifiers Informing World Health Organisation Guidelines for Environmental Noise," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Xiangpu Gong & Benjamin Fenech & Claire Blackmore & Yingxin Chen & Georgia Rodgers & John Gulliver & Anna L. Hansell, 2022. "Association between Noise Annoyance and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-25, February.
    4. Janice Hegewald & Melanie Schubert & Matthias Lochmann & Andreas Seidler, 2021. "The Burden of Disease Due to Road Traffic Noise in Hesse, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Angel M. Dzhambov & Peter Lercher, 2019. "Road Traffic Noise Exposure and Depression/Anxiety: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-22, October.
    6. Ricardo Moreno & Francesco Bianco & Stefano Carpita & Alessandro Monticelli & Luca Fredianelli & Gaetano Licitra, 2023. "Adjusted Controlled Pass-By (CPB) Method for Urban Road Traffic Noise Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Myriam Tobollik & Matthias Hintzsche & Jördis Wothge & Thomas Myck & Dietrich Plass, 2019. "Burden of Disease Due to Traffic Noise in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Davide Petri & Gaetano Licitra & Maria Angela Vigotti & Luca Fredianelli, 2021. "Effects of Exposure to Road, Railway, Airport and Recreational Noise on Blood Pressure and Hypertension," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, August.
    9. Irene van Kamp & Sendrick Simon & Hilary Notley & Christos Baliatsas & Elise van Kempen, 2020. "Evidence Relating to Environmental Noise Exposure and Annoyance, Sleep Disturbance, Cardio-Vascular and Metabolic Health Outcomes in the Context of IGCB (N): A Scoping Review of New Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Jing Ma & Chunjiang Li & Mei-Po Kwan & Yanwei Chai, 2018. "A Multilevel Analysis of Perceived Noise Pollution, Geographic Contexts and Mental Health in Beijing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, July.
    11. Falk Hemker & Timo Haselhoff & Susanne Brunner & Bryce T. Lawrence & Katja Ickstadt & Susanne Moebus, 2023. "The Role of Traffic Volume on Sound Pressure Level Reduction before and during COVID-19 Lockdown Measures—A Case Study in Bochum, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-16, March.
    12. Christoph Lechner & Christian Kirisits, 2022. "The Effect of Land-Use Categories on Traffic Noise Annoyance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.
    13. Irene van Kamp & Frits van den Berg, 2021. "Health Effects Related to Wind Turbine Sound: An Update," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-29, August.
    14. Antonio J. Torija & Charlotte Clark, 2021. "A Psychoacoustic Approach to Building Knowledge about Human Response to Noise of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-16, January.
    15. Luca Fredianelli & Peter Lercher & Gaetano Licitra, 2022. "New Indicators for the Assessment and Prevention of Noise Nuisance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-5, October.
    16. Hanns Moshammer & Julian Panholzer & Lisa Ulbing & Emanuel Udvarhelyi & Barbara Ebenbauer & Stefanie Peter, 2019. "Acute Effects of Air Pollution and Noise from Road Traffic in a Panel of Young Healthy Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Dominik Hauptvogel & Susanne Bartels & Dirk Schreckenberg & Tobias Rothmund, 2021. "Aircraft Noise Distribution as a Fairness Dilemma—A Review of Aircraft Noise through the Lens of Social Justice Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Beat Schäffer & Armin Taghipour & Jean Marc Wunderli & Mark Brink & Lél Bartha & Sabine J. Schlittmeier, 2022. "Does the Macro-Temporal Pattern of Road Traffic Noise Affect Noise Annoyance and Cognitive Performance?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-24, April.
    19. Ane Arregi & Aitana Lertxundi & Oscar Vegas & Gonzalo García-Baquero & Jesus Ibarluzea & Asier Anabitarte & Ziortza Barroeta & Alba Jimeno-Romero & Mikel Subiza-Pérez & Nerea Lertxundi, 2022. "Environmental Noise Exposure and Sleep Habits among Children in a Cohort from Northern Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, December.
    20. Angel M. Dzhambov & Peter Lercher, 2019. "Road Traffic Noise Exposure and Birth Outcomes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-20, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6175-:d:403965. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.