Does severe subacute noise exposure increase risk of new onset hypertension beyond conventional risk factors? A 30 000 person-years cohort study

Previous studies mostly focused on the relationship between chronic environmental noise exposure and hypertension but the effects of subacute (under 4 years) exposure with severe (>85 dB) noise exposure on clinical level hypertension have not been explored. This study aimed to reveal the association between severe noise exposure and hypertension. METHODS: The severe noise exposure group was recruited from a Common Data Model conducted for the Korean Participants Health Examination from January 2014 to December 2017. The use of antihypertensive drug and/or blood pressure of at least 140/90 mmHg was defined as new onset clinical hypertension. A multivariate Cox proportional hazard model was implemented to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) by adjusting covariates including demographic, lifestyle, and other chemical exposure factors. Time-dependent Cox analysis and Landmark analysis were further performed as a sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: During the 29 332 person-years follow-up with 12 412 participants of the entire cohort, new onset hypertension occurred in 1222 participants. The findings showed that severe noise exposure was associated with an increased risk of hypertension incidence in the entire cohort [final model hazard ratio 1.28 (95% CI 1.11–1.47)]. Other covariates did not attenuate the association after adjusting age and sex. Time-dependent Cox and Landmark analysis also showed significant results [hazard ratio 1.60 (95% CI 1.38–1.85) and hazard ratio 1.33 (95% CI 1.13–1.57)]. CONCLUSION: Severe noise with subacute exposure is significantly associated with hypertension development. Further studies should be implemented to clarify whether severe exposure to noise could be an important risk factor for hypertension.