Community noise exposure rand stress in children

Although accumulating evidence over the past two decades points towards noi se as an ambient stressor for children, all of the data emanate from studie s in high-intensity, noise impact zones around airports or major roads. Ext remely little is known about the nonauditory consequences of typical, day-t o-day noise exposure among young children. The present study examined multi methodological indices of stress among children living under 50 dB or above 60 dB (A-weighted, day-night average sound levels) in small towns and vill ages in Austria. The major noise sources were local road and rail traffic. The two samples were comparable in parental education, housing characterist ics, family size, marital status, and body mass index, and index of body fa t. All of the children were prescreened for normal hearing acuity. Children in the noisier areas had elevated resting systolic blood pressure and 8-h, overnight urinary cortisol. The children from noisier neighborhoods also e videnced elevated heart rate reactivity to a discrete stressor (reading tes t) in the laboratory and rated themselves higher in perceived stress sympto ms on a standardized index. Furthermore girls, but not boys, evidenced dimi nished motivation in a standardized behavioral protocol. All data except fo r the overnight urinary neuroendocrine indices were collected in the labora tory. The results;are discussed in the context of prior airport noise and n onauditory health studies. More behavioral and health research is needed on children with typical, day-to-day noise exposure. (C) 2001 Acoustical Soci ety of America.