Road traffic noise and psychiatric disorder: prospective findings from the Caerphilly study
BMJ 1996; 313 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.313.7052.266 (Published 03 August 1996) Cite this as: BMJ 1996;313:266
- Stephen Stansfeld, senior lecturera,
- John Gallacher, research psychologistb,
- Wolfgang Babisch, research scientistc,
- Martin Shipley, senior lecturerd
- a Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University College Medical School, London W1N 8AA
- b MRC Epidemiology Unit (South Wales), Llandough Hospital, Penarth, Glamorgan
- c Institut fur Wasser- und Lufthygiene des Bundesgesundheitsamtes, Berlin, Germany
- d Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London Medical School, London WC1E 6BT
- Correspondence to: Dr Stansfeld.
- Accepted 16 May 1996
Although environmental noise causes annoyance, there is little evidence from studies of psychological symptoms, psychotropic drug use, mental hospital admissions, and community studies that it causes psychiatric disorder.1 Exposure to aircraft noise was not associated with psychiatric disorder in a cross sectional survey in west London,2 but the population exposed to noise may have been biased by prolonged noise exposure and may represent “survivors” of noise, the most vulnerable to noise having moved away or never having moved into the noisy area. The relation between traffic noise at baseline and psychiatric disorder at follow up is explored in the Caerphilly collaborative heart disease study, a population unlikely to have been selected by noise exposure.
Subjects, methods, and results
In the second phase of the Caerphilly study all men aged 50-64 years living in Caerphilly, south Wales, were invited to attend a screening clinic.3 Follow up was carried out five years later. Street measurement of A-weighted sound pressure level (dB(A)) was …