Exposure to nighttime aircraft noise may increase risk for major cardiac events
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Nighttime aircraft noise was associated with cardiac remodeling observed on cardiac MRI.
- Such remodeling may confer increased risk for major adverse cardiac events.
Exposure to high nighttime aircraft noise was tied to cardiac remodeling consistent with changes associated with increased risk for major adverse cardiac events, researchers reported.
A U.K. study evaluating the association between aircraft noise exposure, cardiac remodeling and potential downstream cardiac events was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“We are concerned that the type of abnormalities we saw with nighttime aircraft noise might result in increased risk of heart problems and stroke. Aircraft noise at night has been shown to affect sleep quality and this may be an important factor affecting health,” Anna L. Hansell, MB BChir, PhD, professor of environmental epidemiology and director of the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester, U.K., said in a press release. “The role of noise on heart health is currently under investigation. However, there are many established ways to look after your heart. These include eating a healthy and balanced diet, keeping physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, giving up smoking if you smoke, reducing alcohol consumption, keeping conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes under control, and taking medication including cholesterol-lowering drugs if prescribed by your doctor.”
To better understand the link between exposure to aircraft noise and cardiac health, the researchers evaluated data from 3,635 UK Biobank participants with no hearing difficulties who underwent cardiac MRI imaging while living near one of four major airports: London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.
The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority provided the researchers with data on nighttime aircraft noise levels and weighted 24-hour day-evening-night aircraft noise levels from 2011.
Aircraft noise linked to cardiac remodeling
Overall, 3% of the cohort was exposed to high nighttime aircraft noise of at least 45 dB and 8% was exposed to high 24-hour aircraft noise of at least 50 dB.
For reference, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration described noise of 40 dB as comparable to a soft whisper from 5 feet away and 60 dB as comparable to a normal conversation from 3 feet away.
The researchers reported that participants exposed to increased nighttime aircraft noise had approximately:
- 7% greater left ventricular mass (95% CI, 4-10);
- 4% thicker LV walls with a normal septal-to-lateral wall thickness ratio (95% CI, 2-5); and
- 8% lower global circumferential strain (95% CI, 4-12).
The researchers conducted a secondary analysis in a prospective UK Biobank cohort of 21,360 participants to evaluate the downstream associations between aircraft noise-associated heart remodeling as observed on cardiac MRI and risk for major adverse cardiac events.
Hansell and colleagues estimated an approximately 7% increase in LV mass was independently associated with a 32% higher risk for major adverse cardiac events, whereas a 4% increase in LV wall thickness and an 8% lower circumferential strain were associated with a 17% and 27% higher risk, respectively.
The researchers estimated that a hypothetical individual with such cardiac remodeling associated with nighttime aircraft noise exposure may be at a fourfold increased risk for major adverse cardiac events compared with an individual with lower levels of noise exposure.
Moreover, hypertension and elevated BMI and/or adiposity mediated 10% to 50% of the reported associations between aircraft noise exposure and cardiac remodeling, according to the study.
“Our study is observational so we cannot say with certainty that high levels of aircraft noise caused these differences in heart structure and function. However, our findings add to a growing body of evidence that aircraft noise can adversely affect heart health and our health more generally,” Gaby Captur, MD, MRCP, MS, associate professor of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London (UCL) and the UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science and consultant cardiologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, said in the press release. “Concerted efforts from government and industry are needed to reduce our exposure to aircraft noise and mitigate its impact on the health of millions of people who live close to airports or under flight paths.”
Model may explain tie between noise and CVD risk
In a related editorial, Thomas Münzel, MD, senior professor and environmental cardiologist in the department of cardiology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and colleagues discussed how a model by Wolfgang Babisch, a senior research officer at the German Federal Environmental Agency, published in Noise Health in 2002, may explain the association between noise exposure and CVD.
“According to this model, the perception of noise triggers a stress response that activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system, releasing stress hormones like corticosteroids and catecholamines,” the authors wrote. “Over time, this stress response can lead to inflammation, oxidative stress and increased levels of interleukin-6 and interleukin-1 beta, which, in turn, contribute to cardiovascular disease risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.”
The study researchers were unable to evaluate the dose-response effect of aircraft noise and cardiac remodeling, as those data were not provided by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority.
References:
- Babisch W. Noise Health. 2002;4(16):1-11.
- Exposure to aircraft noise linked to worse heart function. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1069537. . Published Jan. 8, 2025. Accessed Jan. 8, 2025.
- Münzel T, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2024;doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2024.10.090.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Occupational Noise Exposure. https://www.osha.gov/noise. Accessed Jan. 6, 2025.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts