Road Traffic Noise Exposure and Birth Outcomes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Angel M. Dzhambov and Peter Lercher
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Angel M. Dzhambov: Department of Hygiene and Ecomedicine, Faculty of Public Health, Medical University of Plovdiv, 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Peter Lercher: Institute for Highway Engineering and Transport Planning, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: Unlike the other WHO evidence reviews, the systematic review on birth outcomes could not provide a quantitative estimate of the effect of environmental noise. With that in mind, we aimed to update it with additional studies published through to 12 May, 2019 to allow for a formal meta-analysis of the association of residential road traffic noise with birth weight, low birth weight (LBW), small for gestational age (SGA), and preterm birth (PTB). The quality effects and random effects estimators were used for meta-analysis and the robustness of findings was tested in several sensitivity analyses. Nine studies were included in the qualitative synthesis, from which we extracted seven estimates for birth weight ( n = 718,136 births) and LBW ( n = 620,221), and five for SGA ( n = 547,256) and PTB ( n = 74,609). We found −8.26 g (95% CI: −20.61 g, 4.10 g) ( I 2 = 87%) lower birth weight associated with a 10 dB(A) increase in day-evening-night noise level (L den ), and this effect became significant in sensitivity analyses. No evidence of significant effects was found for LBW (OR = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) ( I 2 = 49%), SGA (OR = 1.02; 95% CI: 0.86, 1.21) ( I 2 = 90%), or PTB (OR = 1.00; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.27) ( I 2 = 69%). The quality of evidence for continuous birth weight was graded as “moderate”, while for the other outcomes it was deemed “very low”. Finally, we discuss limitations of the risk of bias assessment criteria employed by Nieuwenhuijsen et al.

Keywords: birth weight; environmental noise; pregnancy outcomes; preterm birth; small for gestational age; transportation noise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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