Most people are unaware of the impact that traffic on mood, behaviour, and mental health. In addition to making drivers more hostile, irritable, and angry, it also raises blood pressure in those who live close to busy roads.
Researchers have previously discovered that traffic noise has a negative impact on people’s mental health, leading to stress and high blood pressure, but they now claim to have discovered evidence of it, according to CNN.
A team from the American Academy of Cardiology came to the conclusion that persons who live close to traffic areas are more likely to acquire hypertension and high blood pressure after analysing 8.1 years’ worth of data from more than 240,000 UK participants between the ages of 40 and 69.
The individuals in the data were those who did not at first experience the issue.
The probability of this event rose with the “dose” of noise, even after accounting for small particles and nitrogen dioxide, researchers in the study concluded.
The JACC journal published the findings.
Noise increases the risk of hypertension
Kazem Rahimi, a professor of population health and cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford, said to CNN: “One question that arises is whether each is independently contributing to risk and this was indeed the case because areas that are noisy tend to also have high levels of air pollution. The risk of hypertension increased in areas with high levels of noise and pollution.”
“That’s not to say air pollution doesn’t play a role in hypertension: Those who had a high exposure to road traffic noise and air pollution had the highest hypertension risk”, he noted.
Rahimi of Oxford also mentioned: “We did not detect a threshold of noise above which the risk started to increase. The risk increased with higher levels of noise, starting at the lowest category that was measured in the study.”
The author also highlighted in an email that this association was graded which means when the noise level increases, the level of hypertension.
Kazem Rahimi also added: “Policymaking towards road traffic noise control as a societal effort would be helpful, such as setting stricter noise guideline and enforcement, improving road conditions and urban design, and investing advanced technology on quieter vehicles such as EVs [electric vehicles].”
According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, 1.28 billion people from age 30-79 years are suffering from hypertension globally. The estimates also suggested that two-thirds of the adults are living in low and middle-income countries.
High blood pressure leads to cardiovascular diseases and strokes and around 46% of adults are oblivious that they have the condition hypertension.
The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention has noted that these two conditions have been the leading cause of death in America.
WHO underlined obesity, lack of physical activity increased consumption of alcohol and smoking as risk factors that cause high blood pressure.
Increased intake of sodium also causes blood pressure to increase. WHO in a study also warned “member states to keep regulations on increased sodium intake.”
The best way to keep your health in check is to monitor your blood pressure. If it exceeds the normal range do consult your doctor about the matter.
