Studies add to knowledge of effects of traffic noise on cardiometabolic health and mental health
by Jeanine Botta, MPH, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition
Photo credit: Mikechie Esparagoza
Recently published results of two European studies have filled in gaps in research, adding data about causation to existing knowledge about traffic noise exposure and metabolic changes, and finding an association between traffic noise exposure and depression and anxiety among a younger population.
The LongITools Project study at the University of Oulu in Finland, published in 2026, builds on research showing the connection between noise exposure and changes in blood cholesterol and lipid metabolites. Such changes are known risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, which include metabolic syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance, as well as cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, and stroke.
While earlier studies have been able to associate traffic noise to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases including diabetes, this study was able to identify detailed early metabolic changes in blood by quantifying 155 specific metabolic biomarkers. Biomarkers are measurable characteristics or substances in the body – such as insulin or blood glucose – that can offer information about how the body responds to factors like nutrition, sleep, and stress, or that may predict a developing disease process.
This study population of 272,229 was selected from three European cohorts and included participants ages 31 and above, 54% female, with an average age of 57 years. The study provided evidence that exposure to nighttime road traffic noise from 50 decibels and above is associated with changes in blood cholesterol and lipid profiles that may lead to the development of cardiometabolic diseases, with more pronounced changes at higher decibel levels.
The authors decided to focus only on nighttime noise because exposure misclassification was expected to be lower at night when most people would likely be at home. By focusing on early changes in biomarkers, the study team has filled in gaps along the pathway from exposure to physiological change before disease has developed. An important aspect of this study and previous related research is that our bodies are affected by noise even when we sleep through it, which demonstrates that one doesn’t have to be annoyed or recognizably stressed by noise to experience physiological changes.
Read the Environmental Research article and a summary of the article on the project website.
An earlier LongITools Project study published in 2025 added to the quality of available research on associations between road traffic noise levels and mental health diagnoses that include depression and anxiety. The research focused on the risk of development of mental illness in children, adolescents, and young adults, and included both road and railway noise that was modelled at their home addresses.
Analyzing available health data of 114,353 individuals living in the Helsinki metropolitan area of Finland in 2007, and comparing it with modelled noise data from their home addresses, researchers followed the evolution of the subjects’ health from ages 8 to 21 for up to ten years. The study found that the risk of depression and anxiety increased significantly when traffic noise at the home address was at or over 53 decibels.
Read the Environmental Research article and a summary of the article on the project website.
The authors of the studies discuss the seriousness of the growing incidence of cardiometabolic diseases among adults and of depression and anxiety among a young population, and recommend that the findings lead to urban planning designed to reduce and prevent risk. With consideration of time and other challenges involved with implementing urban planning, focus on steps that individuals and families can take to reduce noise exposure in their homes should be considered.
The degree to which the LongITools Project studies fill in gaps and improve upon earlier studies is impressive. It is up to those of us who care about the impacts of noise on health to ensure that policymakers understand the evolving data, especially the fact that it shows us that prevention of risks of very serious physiological and mental illnesses is still challenging, but within reach. Particularly with the discovery that biomarkers indicate the earliest development of pervasive and life altering metabolic diseases as a result of noise exposure, one can hope that more decision makers generally will start to pay attention.
