Transportation Noise and Incident Dementia in a Nationwide Population-Based Study
Brittany Krzyzanowski1, Vishal Harnoor3, Sai Shivani Chirag4, George Karway2, Irene Faust2, Brad Racette2
1Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, 2Barrow Neurological Institute, 3Creighton Medical School, 4barrow neurological institute
Objective:
To investigate the role of transportation noise on risk of incident dementia.
Background:
Previous studies have linked hearing loss to dementia. Despite evidence of a relationship between hearing loss and traffic noise, few studies have examined the role of transportation noise, a modifiable risk factor, on dementia risk.
Design/Methods:
We conducted a nationwide, population-based study of 20,789,037 Medicare beneficiaries (aged 67+), 756,321 with incident dementia. Our exposure of interest was average annual transportation noise in decibels (Db) for 2016. We used logistic regression to test the nationwide and region-specific associations between zip+4 level transportation noise and incident dementia. We adjusted for age, sex, race, cardiometabolic disease, and income neighborhood-level educational attainment as potential confounders. To assess the independent role of transportation noise (above and beyond traffic pollution), we adjusted our model for 1 km2 estimates of on-road nitrogen oxides (NOx), on-road volatile organic compounds (VOCs), average annual PM2.5 from 2000 to 2017, and average annual daily traffic for 1997-2010. We performed state-by-state models to assess the geographical variation in the relationship between dementia and transportation noise.
Results:
Transportation noise was associated with a dose-dependent greater risk of incident dementia nationwide. After adjusting for traffic-related air pollution (NOx, VOCs, PM2.5), beneficiaries who lived in neighborhoods with transportation noise greater than 200 Db had a 44% (OR=1.44, 95% CI: 1.38-1.50) greater odds of dementia compared to beneficiaries who live in neighborhoods with less than 10 Db of transportation noise. The strongest association between transportation noise and dementia was generally found in the states on the eastern half of the nation where there was a 6% (95% CI: 5%-7%) greater risk of incident dementia with every doubling of traffic noise exposure.
Conclusions:
Exposure to transportation noise was associated with a greater likelihood of developing dementia, above and beyond traffic pollution.
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