Noise is bad for the heart and can increase the risk of heart attack. This is the conclusion reached by two recent studies on the consequences of the chaos that characterizes life in large cities in particular. The ‘sound’ of traffic, of construction work in progress, sirens and horns, screams and din of the movida. The soundtrack of the metropolis that never sleeps could represent more than a simple annoyance for the ears of residents.
According to two new studies conducted in several European cities, urban noise pollution also risks being an enemy of the heart. The authors of the works, which are being presented at the European Society of Cardiology Esc 2024 Congress in London, show “significant negative impact” on cardiac health. One of the two studies, conducted in Germany, reports that excessive noise in cities could significantly increase the risk of early myocardial infarction in young people with low traditional risk factors.
The other study conducted in France instead focused on those who had already had a previous heart attack, revealing a “strong association between exposure to urban noise, particularly at night, and a worse prognosis 1 year after the first myocardial infarction”, as explained by the authors.
Heart and noise, what scientists say
The German study ‘Decibel-Mi’ involved 430 patients aged 50 and under, residents of Bremen, admitted with acute myocardial infarction to a local heart center. The authors show that these patients under 50 were exposed to higher noise levels than the general population.
And they suggest that including noise pollution analysis in forecast models helps accurately identify those most at risk, leading to more targeted prevention. In the study, patients with heart attacks who scored low on traditional risk factors, such as smoking or diabetes, had significantly higher noise exposure than those who scored high on traditional risk factors. Experts say this highlights how traditional assessment models may underestimate cardiovascular risk in young people who are otherwise considered low risk. Incorporating noise exposure into these models makes assessments more accurate, they say.
The French study ‘Envi-Mi’ instead collected data from the database of the French observatory Rico on 864 patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction and who survived at least 28 days. At the 1-year follow-up, 19% of them had experienced a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE): cardiac deathhospitalization for heart failure, recurrent myocardial infarction, emergency revascularization, stroke, angina or unstable angina. The daily noise exposure levels measured at each patient’s home address (average noise level in decibels A of 56 over 24 hours and 49 at night) were considered moderate and representative of a large proportion of the European population. What the authors observed was that there was a 25% increase in the risk of major cardiovascular events for every 10 decibels A (dBa) increase in noise at night, independent of air pollution, socioeconomic levels and other confounding factors.
“These data provide some of the first insights into whether Noise exposure can affect prognosis “- concludes study author Marianne Zeller, University of Burgundy and Dijon Hospital, France – If confirmed by larger prospective studies, our analysis could help identify new opportunities for environment-based secondary prevention strategies, including noise barriers for high-risk myocardial infarction patients.”
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