With this study, the researchers confirm the results of a few previous studies that had already suggested the association between traffic noise and several markers of obesity.
The study is conducted here among 3,796 adults participating in the Swiss SAPALDIA cohort and having participated in at least 2 evaluation and follow-up visits between 2001 and 2011 which made it possible to record weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and abdominal fat. These data were analyzed together with estimates of exposure to road traffic noise, carried out within the framework of the Swiss SiRENE project. The analysis concludes that people exposed to the highest levels of road noise have a significantly increased risk of obesity. The main author, Maria Foraster, researcher at ISGlobal, specifies: “we find that:
- a 10 dB increase in the average noise level is associated with a 17% increase in the risk of obesity ”.
The study provides further evidence in support of the hypothesis that traffic noise affects obesity. If additional longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm the association, the continuous exposure to noise pollution must be considered and taken care of as a serious public health problem, because of the chronic physiological alterations, metabolic in particular, that it can generate. long-term.
“Reducing this noise exposure could indeed be one way, among others, of fighting the obesity epidemic,” the researchers conclude.