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. 2020 Jan 7;17(2):393.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17020393.

Evidence for Environmental Noise Effects on Health for the United Kingdom Policy Context: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Environmental Noise on Mental Health, Wellbeing, Quality of Life, Cancer, Dementia, Birth, Reproductive Outcomes, and Cognition

Charlotte Clark  1 , Clare Crumpler  1 , And Hilary Notley  2
Affiliations

Evidence for Environmental Noise Effects on Health for the United Kingdom Policy Context: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Environmental Noise on Mental Health, Wellbeing, Quality of Life, Cancer, Dementia, Birth, Reproductive Outcomes, and Cognition

Charlotte Clark et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This systematic review commissioned by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), considers how the evidence base for noise effects on health has changed following the recent reviews undertaken for the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines. This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence for environmental noise effects on mental health, wellbeing, and quality of life; birth and reproductive outcomes; and cognition for papers published since the WHO reviews (mid-2015 to March 2019), as well as for cancer and dementia (January 2014 to March 2019). Using the GRADE methodology (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) most evidence was rated as low quality as opposed to very low quality in the previous reviews. There is now low-quality evidence for a harmful effect of road traffic noise on medication use and interview measures of depression and anxiety and low quality evidence for a harmful effect of road traffic noise, aircraft noise, and railway noise on some cancer outcomes. Many other conclusions from the WHO evidence reviews remain unchanged. The conclusions remain limited by the low number of studies for many outcomes. The quantification of health effects for other noise sources including wind turbine, neighbour, industrial, and combined noise remains a research priority.

Keywords: aircraft noise; birth outcomes; cancer; children’s learning; dementia; mental health; quality of life; railway noise; road traffic noise; wellbeing.

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Conflict of interest statement

CC1 and CC2 are environmental consultants undertaking environmental and health impact assessment for large infrastructure clients, amongst other consulting activities in the field of noise and health. The funder (Defra/HN) did not influence the design of the study or the collection or analyses or interpretation of data. The decision to publish was part of the original project scope. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart showing the review process for the quality of life, wellbeing, and mental health papers.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart showing the review process for the cancer papers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Flow chart showing the review process for the dementia papers.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Flow chart showing the review process for birth outcome papers.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Flow chart showing the review process for the cognition paper.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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