The noise during childhood is associated with behavioral problems

16-07-2015

An increase of 10 dB average noise exposure of traffic from birth to age 7 was associated with a 7% increase in behavior problems, hyperactivity 5%, 9% in inattention , 5% abnormal behavioral problems and 6% in peer relationship problems.

Exposure to traffic noise has been associated in many places in the world with health effects in adults, including psychological symptoms such as anxiety and mood swings.
A study with the participation of researchers from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that residential traffic noise in early childhood may be associated with problems behavior, especially symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention. However, the researchers found that exposure to road traffic noise during pregnancy was not associated with behavior problems in children 7 years of age.
Exposure to traffic noise has been associated in many parts of the world with health effects in adults, including psychological symptoms such as anxiety and mood swings. Children can also be vulnerable to traffic noise, especially during sensitive stages of development.

To date, studies of the effects on neuropsychological development by exposure to traffic noise in children have focused mainly on learning and cognitive performance with consistent results deterioration in reading and memory exposure to aircraft noise.
The researchers wanted to find out if exposure to residential traffic noise was associated with behavioral problems in children 7 years of age. For this, 46 940 children had birth cohort national Denmark complete information about behavioral problems at age 7 and history with your full address, from conception up to 7 years old.
Road traffic noise is modeled in all directions current and historical. Behavioral problems were assessed through questionnaires to parents. The associations between pregnancy and childhood exposure to noise and behavior problems were analyzed by regression.
"We found that an average increase of 10 dB in noise exposure of traffic from birth to 7 years of age was associated with increased behavior problems from 7% compared with the normal behavior and an increase of 5% and 9% in the scores of hyperactivity and inattention, respectively, and an increase of 5% and 6% in the scores of problems and abnormal behavior problems in equal ratio, respectively "says Jordi Sunyer, CREAL researcher.

Bibliographic reference:
Hjortebjerg D, Andersen A., J. Christensen, Ketzel M, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Sunyer J, J Júlvez Horn J, M. Sorensen "to Road Traffic Noise Exposure and Behavioral Problems in Children 7-Year-Old: A Cohort Study" . Environ Health Perspect 2015 (in press)

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