Project

Discipline

noise annoyance; human experiment; aircraft noise; epidemiology; sleep; transportation noise; cardiovascular diseases; railway noise; noise modeling; road traffic noise; metabolic syndrome; acoustics

Lead
Das Hauptziel dieser interdisziplinären Studie ist die Untersuchung von akuten, kurz- und langfristigen Auswirkungen von Strassen-, Schienen- und Flugverkehrslärm auf die Belästigung, den Schlaf und die kardiometabolische Gesundheit. Dabei wird im Schlaflabor, mittels Befragungen und in epidemiologischen Studien vertieft evaluiert, welche Rolle dabei die Lärmcharakteristika und Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wie Lärmsensitivität oder genetische Prädisposition spielen.
Lay summary
Ziele: Das Hauptziel der Studie ist die Untersuchung von akuten, kurz- und langfristigen Auswirkungen von Strassen-, Schienen- und Flugverkehrslärm auf die Belästigung, den Schlaf und die kardiometabolische Gesundheit. Insbesondere wird evaluiert welche Lärmcharakteristika für Schlafstörungen und langfristige gesundheitliche Auswirkungen bedeutsam sind. Weiter wird auch erforscht, welche Rollen die Lärmsensitivität, genetische Prädispositionen und andere Persönlichkeitsmerkmale spielen. Methode: Die Lärmbelastung durch Strassen-, Schienen und Luftverkehr wird für die gesamte Schweizer Bevölkerung modelliert. Neben der Höhe der Belastung werden dabei auch andere Charakteristika berücksichtigt wie die tageszeitliche Verteilung oder die Ereignishaftigkeit der Lärmbelastung. Im Schlaflabor werden Probanden während einer Woche zufällig verschiedenen Lärmszenarien ausgesetzt und Effekte auf den Schlaf, kardiometabolische Parameter und kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit am Folgetag analysiert. In einer repräsentativen Bevölkerungserhebung wird evaluiert, wie stark die Verkehrslärmbelästigung im Alltag ist und wie damit umgegangen wird. In zwei grossen laufenden epidemiologischen Studien (SAPALDIA Biobank und Schweizer Nationale Kohortenstudie) wird unter Berücksichtigung von Biomarkern und anderen Faktoren wie Luftbelastung untersucht wie sich die Lärmbelastung zu Hause langfristig auf die kardiometabolische Gesundheit auswirkt. Signifikanz: Eine besondere Stärke dieser interdisziplinären Studie ist die Kombination von experimentellen und epidemiologischen Forschungsmethoden, zur Erforschung der Wechselwirkungen von akuten, kurz- und langfristigen Auswirkungen. Für Strassen-, Schienen- und Luftverkehrslärm werden Expositions-Wirkungsbeziehungen hergeleitet und dabei verschiedene Charakteristika des Lärms mitberücksichtig. Damit kann das Gesundheitsrisiko der Lärmbelastung besser verstanden werden, was für eine adäquate Regulierung der Lärmbelastung relevant ist.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.11.2013

Lead
The overall goal of this interdisciplinary study is to investigate acute, short- and long-term effects of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure on annoyance, sleep disturbances and cardiometabolic risk. Noise exposure patterns that most strongly affect individuals are identified by means of sleep experiments, surveys and epidemiological research. In addition, the role of individual characteristics such as age and gender, noise sensitivity and genetic predispositions will be elucidated.
Lay summary
Aims: The overall goal of this project is to investigate acute, short- and long-term effects of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure on annoyance, sleep disturbances and cardiometabolic risk. The project aims at identifying noise exposure patterns that most strongly affect individuals during sleep and thus may ultimately result in long-term health consequences. Methods: A nationwide assessment of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure will be conducted. In addition to average exposure, exposure modelling will be considerably refined to reflect additional exposure characteristics such as the degree of intermittence of noise events or the diurnal distribution of noise. During a one-week period in the sleep-laboratory, volunteers will be randomly exposed to different noise scenarios and effects on sleep as well as cardiometabolic parameters and subsequent cognitive performance will be investigated. Noise annoyance and coping responses in the Swiss population will be evaluated via a representative survey. Taking into account biomarkers and other factors including air pollution, data from two large on-going epidemiological studies (SAPALDIA Biobank and Swiss National Cohort) will be used to explore the exposure-response association for the various traffic noise sources and cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality. Significance: A key asset of this interdisciplinary study is the mutual combination of human experimental and epidemiological research to address acute, short- and long-term noise effects on sleep and cardiometabolic outcomes. Source-specific exposure-response functions will be determined giving due consideration to the acoustical characteristics of noise, such as the distribution of noise events during the night. This contribution to the understanding of health risks, especially for urban dwellers, and is highly relevant for regulating environmental noise.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.11.2013

Active participation

Self-organised

Active participation

Self-organised

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Title	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

Background: Little is known about how acute and short-term noise effects, especially those that are observed during sleep, translate into long-term health consequences. In particular, it is unclear which acoustical characteristics of noise from different sources are most detrimental for human health and wellbeing.Aims: The overall goal of this project is to investigate the acute, short- and long-term effects of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure on annoyance and coping responses, sleep disturbances and cardiometabolic risk by mutually combining human experimental research in the laboratory with population-based epidemiological methods. The project specifically aims at identifying the noise exposure patterns that most strongly affect individuals during sleep and that may result in long-term health consequences, in particular, in cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome. Besides the effect of noise exposure, the role of individual characteristics such as age and gender, noise sensitivity and genetic predispositions will be elucidated.Methods: This interdisciplinary study consists of three sub-projects. Sub-project 1 focuses on the modelling of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure and its effects on annoyance and coping responses in the Swiss population. Exposure modelling will be considerably refined to reflect not only average exposure, but additional exposure characteristics such as the degree of intermittence of noise events that we hypothesise to be a relevant predictor of detrimental effects of noise during sleep. Furthermore, realistic transportation noise exposure scenarios will be compiled in Sub-project 1 and played back in sleep laboratory experiments in Sub-project 2. In Sub-project 2 acute (e.g. awakening reactions) and short-term (e.g. cardiometabolic and cognitive effects on the subsequent day) consequences of nocturnal noise exposure scenarios will be investigated in a well controlled environment by employing a counterbalanced randomised cross-over design with 48 volunteers constantly monitored during 6 nights and 5 days. In Sub-project 3 data of two on-going large SNF-funded population-based epidemiological studies (SAPALDIA biobank and Swiss National Cohort) will be used to investigate long-term cardiometabolic risk with high statistical power and by considering relevant co-factors. The three Sub-projects are designed to closely interact in an interdisciplinary manner. Sub-project 1 will provide the noise exposure scenarios and exposure set-up for Sub-project 2 and the exposure modelling for Sub-project 3. The same cardiometabolic outcomes of Sub-project 3 available from several thousand SAPALDIA study participants will also be collected in Sub-project 2 with high time resolution under controlled experimental conditions. Significance: Mutually combining human experimental and epidemiological research to systematically address acute, short- and long-term noise effects on sleep and cardiometabolic outcomes is an asset of this study and has rarely been done in noise effect research before. Experimental research allows for evaluating the effects of well defined acoustical noise exposure scenarios in a controlled environment on carefully selected, representative individuals. The use of ongoing large-scale population-based epidemiologic studies enables cost-efficiently addressing the full range of variability in the population and in exposure circumstances that occur in our environment. This will be the first study on transportation noise effects that considers genetic variations, which will provide a better understanding of relevant biological pathways. Systematic consideration of transportation noise exposure levels as well as other noise characteristics, such as the distribution of noise events during the night, is a unique feature of this project and is highly relevant for adequate regulation of noise emissions of different transportation modes. It is estimated that Switzerland, by about 2020, will have invested a substantial >5 billion Swiss francs in noise abatement measures. Thus, beyond scientific there is a high policy interest in our research questions and the results of this project are expected to have a broad impact by revealing evidence-based measures of action in order to most effectively invest these resources.