Urban noise pollution has a negative impact on heart health, show studies

Noise pollution in urban areas has significant negative impacts on heart health according to studies published on Tuesday The studies conducted in France and Germany respectively show that people already suffering from heart as well as cardiovascular problems are among the vulnerable groups and will be subjected to debilitating effects on their health owing to this menaceIn Germanys Bremen 430 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarctions MI who were admitted to a nearby heart centre and were 50 years of age or younger were enrolled in the trial The researchers found that residential noise exposure levels were higher than those of the general population in the same region when they calculated levels of noise exposure Individuals who had MI and a low Cardiovascular Disease CVD score greater or smaller than 25 per cent suggests they had less traditional risk factors like diabetes or smoking showed considerably higher noise exposure than patients with a high CVD scoreThis is important because cardiovascular risk in young people who are otherwise deemed low risk may be underestimated by traditional risk assessment techniquesAn independent French study evaluated the effect of noise exposure on the prognosis following a first MI we found a strong association between urban noise exposure particularly at night and worse prognosis at 1 year after a first MI in the ENVIMI researchrdquo said investigator Professor Marianne Zeller of the University of Burgundy and Hospital of DijonData for 864 patients who were hospitalised for an acute MI and survived for at least 28 days following the MI were gathered from the French Observatory Database RICOA major adverse cardiovascular event MACE cardiac mortality rehospitalisation for heart failure recurrent MI emergency revascularisation stroke angina andor unstable angina was reported by 19 per cent of the participants at the 1year followupThe average noise level in Aweighted decibels dBA for each patients home address was measured every day It was found to be 560 during the day and 490 at night These levels of noise exposure were deemed to be moderate and typical for a significant portion of the European population Notably regardless of air pollution or socioeconomic status there was a 25 per cent greater risk of MACE for every 10 dBA increase in noise during the night hazard ratio 125 95 per cent confidence interval 109ndash143These data provide some of the first insights that noise exposure can affect prognosis If confirmed by larger prospective studies our analysis could help to identify new opportunities for environmentbased secondaryprevention strategies including noise barriers for highrisk MI patients Prof Zeller saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever