The short-term association between exposure to noise and heart rate variability in daily locations and mobility contexts

Abstract

Background: Personal exposure to noise has been shown to be associated with concomitant increases and lagged decreases of short-term heart rate variability (HRV). It is however unknown whether this association differs between contexts defined by visited places or mobility as both exposure sources and expectations may be different between these contexts.Method: Between July 2014 and June 2015, the RECORD MultiSensor Study collected sound level and heart rate data for 75 participants, aged 34-74 years, in their living environments for 7 days using a personal dosimeter and electrocardiography sensor on the chest. Their whereabouts were collected using a GPS receiver and a mobility survey. Short-term concomitant and lagged associations between sound level and HRV parameters were assessed within types of visited places and transport modes using mixed effects models with a random intercept for participants.Results: Increases in sound level were associated with a concomitant increase in all HR/HRV parameters, and delayed decreases in the overall HRV. Interactions between the sound level and the visited place/mobility context were documented. Compared with home, the concomitant association of sound level with HR and rMSSD was doubled within active and private motorized transport modes respectively. Conclusion:The association of sound level with HR/HRV varies between visited places/mobility contexts. Future studies investigating these context-dependent associations in ambulatory settings will need to assess additional acoustical factors relating to the visited environments as well as nonacoustical factors impacting the perception of noise.

The everyday acoustic environment and its association with human heart rate: evidence from real-world data logging with hearing aids and wearables

“…Moreover, hearing loss can lead to increased sensitivity towards noisy and loud sound environments, which might have impacted the associations listed in Table 1. However, comparing the magnitude of the regression coefficient for SPL with that of El Aarboui & Chaix (27) suggests that age and hearing abilities did not affect the associations found here.…”

“…The autocorrelation of residuals was addressed with a first-order autoregressive structure, which has previously been shown to improve the goodness-of-fit with similar data of mean HRs (27).…”

“…home versus at work), or personal motivation, this limiting the generalizability of effects measured in the laboratory (25,26). Indeed, in a recent real-world study, it found that, over a 7-day period, increases in sound intensity were associated with a concomitant increase in HR and HRV parameters, but a delayed decrease in the overall HRV (27) reflecting withdrawal of parasympathetic and elevation of sympathetic control (19), and confirming the role of real-world noise intensity in disrupting ANS stability. In addition, they found that the strength of the association between sound intensity and change in HR was significantly moderated by place/mobility contexts, and not other parameters, which, as already noted, must be examined to understand how everyday sound immersion objectively affects the human cardiovascular system (27,28).…”

“…In addition, they found that the strength of the association between sound intensity and change in HR was significantly moderated by place/mobility contexts. This highlights the importance of conducting real-world studies examining the effects of everyday sound immersion on the human cardiovascular system (27,28). This notion has long been acknowledged in city planning (29,30) for example, but has not yet been applied in the study of human stress reactions to everyday sound immersion.…”

“…The autocorrelation of residuals (i.e. HR observations are not independent) was addressed with a first-order autoregressive structure, which has previously been shown to improve the goodness-of-fit with similar data of mean HRs (27). To assess the degree of multicollinearity within the models, particularly with the addition of acoustic characteristics and their interaction with soundscape, the generalized variance inflation factor (GVIF) was computed using the "car" package version 3.0.8 (44).…”