Association between Noise and Cardiovascular Disease in a Nationwide U.S. Prospective Cohort Study of Women Followed from 1988 to 2018

Abstract

Background: Long-term noise exposure is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including acute cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke. However, longitudinal cohort studies in the U.S. of long-term noise and CVD are almost exclusively from Europe and few modeled nighttime noise, when an individual is likely at home or asleep, separately from daytime noise. We aimed to examine the prospective association of outdoor long-term nighttime and daytime noise from anthropogenic sources with incident CVD using a U.S.-based, nationwide cohort of women.

Methods: We linked $L_{50}$ nighttime and $L_{50}$ daytime anthropogenic modeled noise estimates from a U.S. National Parks Service model ($L_{50}$: sound pressure levels exceeded 50 percent of the time) to geocoded residential addresses of 114,116 participants in the Nurses' Health Study. We used time-varying Cox proportional hazards models to estimate risk of incident CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke associated with long-term average (14-y measurement period) noise exposure, adjusted for potential individual- and area-level confounders and CVD risk factors (1988-2018; biennial residential address updates; monthly CVD updates). We assessed effect modification by population density, region, air pollution, vegetation cover, and neighborhood socioeconomic status, and explored mediation by self-reported average nightly sleep duration.

Results: Over 2,548,927 person-years, there were 10,331 incident CVD events. In fully adjusted models, the hazard ratios for each interquartile range increase in $L_{50}$ nighttime noise (3.67 dBA) and $L_{50}$ daytime noise (4.35 dBA), respectively, were 1.04 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.06) and 1.04 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.07). Associations for total energy-equivalent noise level ($L_{\text{eq}}$) measures were stronger than for the anthropogenic statistical $L_{50}$ noise measures. Similar associations were observed for CHD and stroke. Interaction analyses suggested that associations of $L_{50}$ nighttime and $L_{50}$ daytime noise with CVD did not differ by prespecified effect modifiers. We found no evidence that inadequate sleep ($<5$ h/night) mediated associations of $L_{50}$ nighttime noise and CVD.

Discussion: Outdoor $L_{50}$ anthropogenic nighttime and daytime noise at the residential address was associated with a small increase in CVD risk in a cohort of adult female nurses. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12906.