Association between Noise Annoyance and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

To date, most studies of noise and mental health have focused on noise exposure rather than noise annoyance. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate whether the available evidence supports an adverse association between noise annoyance and mental health problems in people. We carried out a literature search of Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and conference proceedings published between 2000 and 2022. Thirteen papers met the inclusion criteria. We conducted meta-analyses of noise annoyance in relation to depression, anxiety, and general mental health. In the meta-analyses, we found that depression was approximately 1.23 times greater in those who were highly noise-annoyed (N = 8 studies). We found an approximately 55% higher risk of anxiety (N = 6) in highly noise-annoyed people. For general mental health (N = 5), highly annoyed participants had an almost 119% increased risk of mental health problems as assessed by Short Form (SF) or General Household Questionnaires (GHQ), but with high heterogeneity and risk of publication bias. In conclusion, findings are suggestive of a potential link between noise annoyance and poorer mental health based on a small number of studies. More evidence is needed to confirm these findings.

Traffic noise in the bedroom in association with being overweight or obese: a cross-sectional study of the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe cohort

“…Taking this fact into account, self-reported noise measures could be a better indicator for annoyance among noise-sensitive people than purely modelled levels (Gong et al, 2022). In the current study, there was no evaluation of the participant's noise sensitivity, but the interpretation of answers to two different questions can give some information about noise sensitivity.…”

Enacting Happiness from Emotions and Moods

“…Regarding environmental stressors, their effects on the components of SWB have been extensively studied in psychology. Through a non-exhaustive review of this literature, we have shown that the 4 main categories of environmental stressors, namely daily hassles, ambient stressors (especially noise annoyance), stressful life events, and cataclysmic events (especially floods), are associated with short and in some cases long term degradation of SWB, especially through the decrease in life satisfaction [28,32,44,46].…”

“…More recently, in their meta-analysis and systematic review, Gong et al (2022) found that noise-annoyed people had a, respectively, 55% (6 studies) and 23% (8 studies) increased risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms compared to people with low noise annoyance [32]. This detrimental effect of noise annoyance on affective state (and thus on SWB) would also be devoid of a habituation effect [33] and would also concern children [34].…”

The National Transportation Noise Exposure Map

“…Community noise has been linked to numerous negative health effects, including high annoyance (1,2), poor mental health (3), obesity (4), hypertension (5), heart disease (6)(7)(8), increased risk of diabetes (9), and sleep disturbance (10,11). Environmental noise affects some population groups more than others (12).…”