Background
:
This study aimed to investigate the effects of long
-
term exposure to road traffic noise
and air pollution
on incident
cardiovascular disease (
CVD
)
in three large cohort
s
: HUNT, EPIC
-
Oxford
and UK Biobank.
Methods
:
In pooled
complete
-
case
sample of
the
three cohorts from Norway and the United Kingdom
(N=
355
,7
32
)
,
21,081 incident all CVD cases including
5,259
ischemic heart disease (
IHD
)
and 2,
871
cerebrovascular cases were ascertained between baseline
(
199
3
-
2010
)
and end of follow
-
up
(
2008
-
201
3
)
through medical
record
linkage
. Annual mean
24
-
hour weighted
road traffic noise
(L
den
)
and air
pollution (
particulate matter
with aerodynamic diameter
≤10 μm [
PM
10
]
,
≤2.5 μm [PM
2.5
]
and
nitrogen
39
dioxide
[
NO
2
])
exposure
at baseline address
was modelled using a simplified version of the Common
Noise Assessment Methods in Europe (CNOSSOS
-
EU)
and European
-
wide Land Use Regression
model
s
.
Individual
-
level
covariate
data were harmonised and
physically
p
ooled across the three cohorts.
Analysis was via
Cox proportional hazard model with
mutual
adjustment
s
for
both
noise and air pollution
and
potential confounders
.
Results
:
No significant associations were found between annual mean L
den
and incident
CVD,
IHD or cerebrovascular disease in the overall population
except that the a
ssociation
with
incident IHD w
as
significant
among current
-
smokers
.
In the
fully adjusted
models
including adjustment
for
L
den
, an
interquartile range (IQR) higher PM
10
(4.1μg/m
3
) o
r PM
2.5
(1.4μg/m
3
) was associated with
a
5.8%
(95%CI: 2.5%
-
9.3%) and 3.7% (95%CI: 0.2%
-
7.4%)
higher
risk for
all
incident CVD
respectively
. No significant associations were found between NO
2
and any of the CVD outcomes.
Conclusions:
We found suggestiv
e evidence of a possible association between road traffic noise and
incident IHD, consistent with current literature. Long-term particulate air pollution exposure, even at
concentrations below current European air quality standards
, was significantly associated with incident CVD.