Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 May 20;718:137368. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137368. Epub 2020 Feb 17.
Aircraft noise can disturb sleep and impair recuperation. Research is needed to develop exposure-response relationships that are representative of noise-exposed communities and can be used to inform noise mitigation policy in the United States. For a national field study on physiologic response to aircraft noise during sleep to be feasible, an inexpensive yet sound study methodology is needed. In the pilot study presented here, the methodology of using electrocardiography and actigraphy to monitor sleep was implemented around Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL). The primary objective was to evaluate the quality and quantity of data that could be obtained with the following study approaches: recruiting participants by postal questionnaire, shipping them the physiologic and noise measurement equipment, and the unattended setup of the equipment and recording of data by the participants themselves. The secondary objective was to compare objective and subjective measures of sleep and health between groups exposed to different levels of nocturnal aircraft noise. We mailed 4080 questionnaires containing items on sleep, health and noise disturbance to residences around ATL that were exposed to at least 35 dB L aircraft noise. From 407 questionnaire respondents, 34 participants completed five nights of unattended sleep measurements. Data of sufficient quality and quantity to investigate the effects of aircraft noise on sleep were obtained. Self-reported awakenings increased as a function of the highest maximum aircraft noise level occurring during the sleep period. Event-related physiologic awakenings increased as a function of the maximum noise level of individual aircraft noise events, although this effect was of only borderline statistical significance (p = 0.057) likely due to the low sample size of this pilot study. The approach used in the presented pilot study has been demonstrated to be feasible for the purpose of the larger-scale study among a representative population around multiple airports in the future.
飞机噪声会干扰睡眠并影响恢复。需要研究来制定具有代表性的暴露-反应关系，这些关系可以用来为美国的噪声缓解政策提供信息。为了使一项关于飞机噪声对睡眠期间生理反应的全国性现场研究成为可行，需要一种廉价但可靠的研究方法。在本文提出的初步研究中，使用心电图和活动记录仪监测睡眠的方法在亚特兰大哈茨菲尔德-杰克逊国际机场（ATL）周围实施。主要目的是评估以下研究方法获得的数据的质量和数量：通过邮寄问卷招募参与者，向他们发送生理和噪声测量设备，并由参与者自己设置设备和记录数据。次要目标是比较暴露于不同夜间飞机噪声水平的组之间的睡眠和健康的客观和主观测量值。我们向 ATL 周围至少暴露于 35dB L 飞机噪声的住宅邮寄了 4080 份包含睡眠、健康和噪声干扰问题的问卷。在 407 份问卷答复者中，有 34 名参与者完成了五晚无人值守的睡眠测量。获得了足够数量和质量的数据来研究飞机噪声对睡眠的影响。自我报告的觉醒次数随着睡眠期间发生的最高飞机噪声水平的增加而增加。与个体飞机噪声事件的最大噪声水平相关的与事件相关的生理唤醒也随之增加，尽管这一效果仅具有边缘统计学意义（p=0.057），这可能是由于这项初步研究的样本量较小。在未来，在多个机场周围的代表性人群中开展更大规模研究时，本文提出的初步研究中使用的方法已被证明是可行的。
