Annoyance and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study Involving Two Noise Sources

Daniel Shepherd, David McBride, Kim N. Dirks, David Welch

Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
School of Population Health, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
School of Public Health, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2014.55043                

Abstract

Noise remains a potent degrader of health in many global contexts, capable of inducing severe annoyance and sleep disturbance. An epidemiological study was undertaken to compare noise annoyance and health-related quality of life of individuals residing close to a major international airport or wind turbine complex with those located in demographically matched areas. Results indicate that domains of health-related quality of life may be degraded in those living in areas more likely to induce noise annoyance. Furthermore, the addition of aviation noise to environments already encroached by road noise may induce further annoyance and degradations in health-related quality of life, indicating that one noise sources may not mask the impact of another.

Keywords

Aviation Noise, Wind Turbine Noise, Noise Annoyance, Health

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Job, R.F.S. (1988) Community Response to Noise: A Review of Factors Influencing the Relationship between Noise Exposure and Reaction. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83, 991-1001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.396524
[2]	Stansfeld, S.A., Clark, C.R, Jenkins, L.M. and Tarnopolsky, A. (1985) Sensitivity to Noise in a Community Sample: I. The Measurement of Psychiatric Disorder and Personality. Psychological Medicine, 15, 243-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700023527
[3]	Basner, M., Babisch, W., Davis, A., Brink, M., Clark, C., Janssen, S. and Stansfeld, S. (2013) Auditory and Non-Auditory Effects of Noise on Health. Lancet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61613-X
[4]	Berglund, B., Lindvall, T. and Schwela, D.H. (1999) World Health Organisation Guidelines for Community Noise. WHO, Geneva.
[5]	World Health Organisation (2009) Night Noise Guidelines for Europe. World Health Organisation, Copenhagen.
[6]	World Health Organization (2011) Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise. World Health Organization, Bonn, Geneva.
[7]	European Union (2000) Unsafe Levels of Noise in Europe. https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/reports/6905723
[8]	Berglund, B., Hassmen, P. and Job, R.F.S. (1996) Sources and Effects of Low-Frequency Noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 99, 2985-3002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.414863
[9]	Sheppard, K.P. and Hubbard, H.H. (1990) Physical Characteristics and Perception of Low Frequency Noise from Wind Turbines. Noise Control Engineering, 36, 5-15.
[10]	Fidel, S., Tabachnick, B., Mestre, V. and Fidel, L. (2013) Aircraft Noise-Induced Awakenings Are More Reasonably Predicted from Relative than from Absolute Sound Exposure Levels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134, 3645-3653. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4823838
[11]	Møller, H. and Pedersen, C.S. (2011) Low-Frequency Noise from Large Wind Turbines. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129, 3727-3744. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3543957
[12]	Lambert, J., Champelovier, P. and Vernet I. (1998) Assessing the Railway Bonus: The Need to Examine the “New Infrastructure” Effect. Proceedings of the Inter-Noise 98—The International Congress on Noise Control Engineering: Sound and Silence: Setting the Balance, Christchurch, 4-8.
[13]	Miedema, H.M.E. and Oudshoorn, C.G.M. (2001) Annoyance from Transportation Noise: Relationships with Exposure Metrics DNL and DENL and Their Confidence Intervals. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109, 409-416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.01109409
[14]	Bakker, R.H., Pedersen, E., van den Berg, G.P., Stewart, R.E., Lok, W. and Bouma, J. (2012) Impact of Wind Turbine Sound on Annoyance, Self-Reported Sleep Disturbance and Psychological Distress. Science of the Total Environment, 425, 42-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.03.005
[15]	Pedersen, E. and Persson Waye, K. (2004) Perception and Annoyance Due to Wind Turbine Noise: A Dose-Response Relationship. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116, 3460-3470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.1815091
[16]	Correia, A.W., Peters, J.L., Levy, J.I., Melly, S. and Dominici, F. (2013) Residential Exposure to Aircraft Noise and Hospital Admissions for Cardiovascular Diseases: Multi-Airport Retrospective Study. British Medical Journal, 347, Article ID: f5561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f5561
[17]	Hansell, A.L. (2013) Aircraft Noise and Cardiovascular Disease Near Heathrow Airport in London: Small Area Study. British Medical Journal, 347, Article ID: f5432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f5432
[18]	Shepherd, D., Welch, D., Dirks, K.N. and Mathews, R. (2010) Exploring the Relationship between Noise Sensitivity, Annoyance and Health-Related Quality of Life in a Sample of Adults Exposed to Environmental Noise. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7, 3579-3594. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7103580
[19]	Van den Berg, G.P., Pedersen, E., Bouma, J. and Bakker, R. (2008) Project WINDFARMperception Visual and Acoustic Impact of Wind Turbine Farms on Residents. FP6-2005-Science-and-Society-20, Specific Support Action Project No. 044628, Final Report, University of Groningen, Groningen.
[20]	Dratva, J., Zemp, E., Dietrich, D.F., Bridevaux, P.O., Rochat, T., Schindler, C. and Gerbase, M.W. (2010) Impact of Road Traffic Noise Annoyance on Health-Related Quality of Life: Results from a Population-Based Study. Quality of Life Research, 19, 37-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11136-009-9571-2
[21]	Shepherd, D., McBride, D., Welch, D., Dirks, K.N. and Hill, E. (2011) Evaluating the Impact of Wind Turbine Noise on Health-Related Quality of Life. Noise and Health, 13, 333-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.85502
[22]	Nissenbaum, M.A., Aramini1, J.J. and Hanning, C.D. (2012) Effects of Industrial Wind Turbine Noise on Sleep and Health. Noise and Health, 14, 237-243. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.102961
[23]	Lercher, P. (1996) Environmental Noise and Health: An Integrated Research Perspective. Environment International, 22, 117-129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0160-4120(95)00109-3
[24]	Lercher, P. (2003) Which Health Outcomes Should Be Measured in Health Related Environmental Quality of Life Studies? Landscape and Urban Planning, 65, 63-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(02)00238-4
[25]	Shepherd, D. (2013) Sound Mind in a Sound Body: Health in the Noise Context. Proceedings of the 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, Innsbruck, 15-18 September 2013,
[26]	Brown, A.L. (2012) A Review of Progress in Soundscapes and an Approach to Soundscape Planning. International Journal of Acoustics and Vibration, 17, 73-81.
[27]	Fidell, S. (2003) The Schultz Curve 25 Years Later: A Research Perspective. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114, 3007-3015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.1628246
[28]	Zwicker, E. and Fastl, H. (1999) Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models. 3rd Edition, Springer, Heidelberg.
[29]	Huber, M., Knottnerus, J.A., Green, L., Van der Horst, H., Jadad, A.R. and Kromhout, D. (2011) How should We Define Health? British Journal of Medicine, 343, Article ID: d4163, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4163
[30]	Salomon, J.A., Mathers, C.D., Chatterji, S., Sadana, R., Ustun, T.B. and Murray, C.J.L. (2003) Quantifying Individual Levels of Health: Definitions, Concepts, and Measurement Issues. In: Murray, C.J.L. and Evans, D.B., Eds., Health Systems Performance Assessment: Debates, Methods and Empiricism, World Health Organization, Geneva, 900.
[31]	Skevington, S.M., Lotfy, M. and O’Connell, K.A. (2004) The World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF Quality of Life Assessment: Psychometric Properties and Results of the International Field Trial—A Report from the WHOQOL Group. Quality of Life Research, 13, 299-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:QURE.0000018486.91360.00
[32]	Black, D.A., Black, J.A., Issarayangyun, T. and Samuels, S.E. (2007) Aircraft Noise Exposure and Resident’s Stress and Hypertension: A Public Health Perspective for Airport Environmental Management. Journal of Air Transport Management, 13, 264-276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2007.04.003
[33]	Shepherd, D., Welch, D., Dirks, K.N. and McBride, D. (2013) Do Quiet Areas Afford Greater Health-Related Quality of Life than Noisy Areas? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10, 1284-1303. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10041284
[34]	Ministry of Health (2006) New Zealand Deprivation Scores. http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/dhb-maps-and-background-information-atlas-of-socioeconomic-deprivation-innz-nzdep2006
[35]	Welch, D., Shepherd, D., Dirks, K.N., McBride, D. and Marsh, S. (2013) Road Traffic Noise and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Cross Sectional Study. Noise and Health, 15, 224-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.113513
[36]	Tarnopolsky, A., Barker, S.M., Wiggins, R.D. and McLean, E.K. (1978) The Effect of Aircraft Noise on the Mental Health of a Community Sample: A Pilot Study. Psychological Medicine, 8, 219-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700014276
[37]	Stansfeld, S., Gallacher, J., Babisch, W. and Shipley, M. (1996) Road Traffic Noise and Psychiatric Disorder: Prospective Findings from the Caerphilly Study. British Medical Journal, 313, 266-267.
[38]	McBride, D., Shepherd, D., Welch, D. and Dirks, K.N. (2013) A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Wind Turbine Proximity on Health Related Quality of Life. Proceedings of the 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, Innsbruck, 15-18 September 2013.
[39]	Amann, E., Lercher, P., Weichbold, V. and Eisenmann, A. (2007) The Effects of Measuring Noise Sensitivity with a Single or Several Rating Scale on the Population Prevalence and Distribution of This Personality Trait. Proceedings of the 36nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, Istanbul.