International Society for Environmental Epidemiology & International Society of Exposure Analysis(ISEE)

2008 Joint Annual Conference

Exposure and Health in a Global Environment

October 12–16, 2008  Pasadena Convention Center  Pasadena, California USA

Thursday, until conference close – dedicated poster viewing, 10:00–11:30 AM

Physical Environment, Electric Fields, and Radiation

P097 Effects of Environmental Noise Exposure on Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Healthy Adults [757]
Chang T, Lai Y

It is my first international conference poster thesis.

Effects of Environmental Noise Exposure on Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Healthy Adults
Chang T, Lai Y China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that environmental noise exposure is associated with hypertension in the middle-age population, but such effect in the young subpopulation is unclear.
Objective: This panel study aimed to investigate effects of environmental noise exposure on 24-hour
ambulatory blood pressure in healthy adults.
Methods: We recruited 48 volunteers (28 male and 20 female) from a university in Taiwan. We simultaneously measured individual noise exposure and personal ambulatory blood pressure during the 24-hour period. Linear mixed-effects regression models were used to estimate effects of noise exposure on ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) during different periods by adjusting some confounders collected from self-administrated questionnaires.
Results: The total subjects (56.69 ± 16.59 dBA; mean ± standard deviation) had significantly higher mean values of SBP, DBP and noise exposure during work and off-duty periods than those measured during the sleep period. The male group (56.54 ± 16.30 dBA) had significant increases in work-time SBP(12.57 ± 1.78 mmHg), off-duty-time SBP (11.32 ± 2.45 mmHg), and in sleep-time SBP (12.22 ± 3.00
mmHg) than the female group (56.88 ± 16.96 dBA). There were no significant gender-specific differences in the mean values of DBP and noise exposure during different periods. For 24-hour environmental noise, a 10-dBA increase in exposure was significantly associated with an elevation of 1.73 ± 0.32 mmHg in SBP and 1.13 ± 0.28 mmHg in DBP among total subjects, as well as 2.69 ± 0.46 mmHg in SBP and 1.81 ± 0.40 mmHg in DBP among females, and 0.97 ± 0.43 mmHg in SBP among males over a 24-hour period.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that environmental noise exposure may have elevated effects on young adults’ ambulatory blood pressure. In addition, females are more susceptible to noise exposure than males; therefore, the gender-specific effect should be considered for future noise exposure and hypertension studies.