Zachary Graham
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Lauren Smith
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Environmental Health Sciences / Public Health
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Zachary Graham, Lauren Smith, Richard Neitzel
Abstract
Noise exposure is an environmental factor that increases the risk of a variety of health-related outcomes and diseases, particularly cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. As the push for urbanization increases, people’s daily exposure to noise from things like traffic, railways, airplanes, and a variety of other sources will only increase. According to the WHO between 1.0 and 1.6 million disability-adjusted life-years or DALYs, which equate to healthy life years, are lost yearly due to noise-related health impacts in Western Europe exclusively (World Health Organization, 2011). Cognitive decline and other impacts are on the rise as well. It is estimated that by 2050 the number of people living with dementia will surpass 131 million, an almost threefold increase from the 47 million people living with dementia as of 2016 (Prince et al. 2016). A portion of this increase may be due to exposure to noise which is known to lead to oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain which have been shown to lead to amyloid ß-protein (Aß) deposition and tau protein hyperphosphorylation, which are known factors in cognitive decline, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s. Using search criteria developed by a librarian, this systematic review collected papers from PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and ProQuest. This review has screened over 1684 papers for relevance; 11 papers made it through the screening process and on to the extraction. Papers were excluded if they were an animal study, an experimental study, not peer-reviewed, or were not original research. Additionally, papers were excluded if they had self-reported noise assessments, included non-adult humans, or did not include estimates for the effect of noise exposure on the outcomes of interest. Generally, based on the data extracted from these papers, there seems to be a correlation between an increase in noise exposure and cognitive impairment. Thus, it is imperative that we, as a society, take precautions to limit noise exposure such as limiting how loud vehicles can be or advancements in infrastructure and city planning. Moreover, these precautions will hopefully decrease the prevalence of cognitive decline, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s, and protect society as a whole.
