Long-term exposure to transportation noise and air pollution in relation to incident diabetes in the SAPALDIA study

Abstract

BackgroundEpidemiological studies have inconsistently linked transportation noise and air pollution (AP) with diabetes risk. Most studies have considered single noise sources and/or AP, but none has investigated their mutually independent contributions to diabetes risk.MethodsWe investigated 2631 participants of the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA), without diabetes in 2002 and without change of residence between 2002 and 2011. Using questionnaire and biomarker data, incident diabetes cases were identified in 2011. Noise and AP exposures in 2001 were assigned to participants’ residences (annual average road, railway or aircraft noise level during day-evening-night (Lden), total night number of noise events, intermittency ratio (temporal variation as proportion of event-based noise level over total noise level) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels. We applied mixed Poisson regression to estimate the relative risk (RR) of diabetes and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) in mutually-adjusted models.ResultsDiabetes incidence was 4.2%. Median [interquartile range (IQR)] road, railway, aircraft noise and NO2 were 54 (10) dB, 32 (11) dB, 30 (12) dB and 21 (15) μg/m3, respectively. Lden road and aircraft were associated with incident diabetes (respective RR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.02–1.78 and 1.86; 95% CI: 0.96–3.59 per IQR) independently of Lden railway and NO2 (which were not associated with diabetes risk) in mutually adjusted models. We observed stronger effects of Lden road among participants reporting poor sleep quality or sleeping with open windows.ConclusionsTransportation noise may be more relevant than AP in the development of diabetes, potentially acting through noise-induced sleep disturbances.

Associations of Various Nighttime Noise Exposure Indicators with Objective Sleep Efficiency and Subjective Sleep Quality: A Field Study

“…There was a non-significant non-linear pattern with lowest sleep efficiency for moderate (50-63%) levels of IR, which is in line with findings of the effect of IR in a cohort study on cardiovascular mortality [33]. However, in a cross-sectional survey on arterial stiffness, rather number of events during night was relevant [48]; and in a cohort study on diabetes IR was not associated with the diabetes risk [7]. Thus, it remains open whether IR is contributing to Leq-based metrics for predicting long term health effects of noise.…”

“…There is increasing epidemiological research demonstrating negative effects of transportation noise exposure on various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease [1][2][3][4], metabolic syndrome [5][6][7][8][9], depression [10][11][12], and cognitive functions [13][14][15][16]. Several mechanism are implicated in these negative noise effects like the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), which leads to increased cortisol and glucose levels as well as increased blood pressure, with consequences for blood viscosity and blood coagulation [17].…”

Ambient air pollution in relation to diabetes and glucose-homoeostasis markers in China: a cross-sectional study with findings from the 33 Communities Chinese Health Study

“…A 2015 review 4 summarised these studies and concluded that air pollution might be associated with diabetes, but more critical analysis is warranted. Some studies 11,12 reported an increase in the risk of diabetes, but others did not detect a significant association. Additionally, most studies 3,4 were done in North America and Europe.…”

Atmen: Luftschadstoffe und Gesundheit – Teil III

“…Diese Ergebnisse waren unter Adjustierung für Feinstaub stabil. In einer der wenigen Studien, die sowohl Luftverschmutzung als auch Umgebungslärm gemeinsam untersucht haben, waren Straßenverkehrslärm und Fluglärm positiv mit der Diabetesinzidenz assoziiert, nicht jedoch die langfristige NO 2 -Konzentration [30]. Diese Studie deutet darauf hin, dass durch das häufig beobachtete simultane Auftreten der beiden umweltbezogenen Risikofaktoren, Luftverschmutzung und Lärm, ein Vermischen der Effekte ("confounding") möglich ist und dass für eine Beurteilung der einzelnen Effekte eine Berücksichtigung beider Umweltfaktoren notwendig ist.…”