Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Tranzo, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2021 Oct 1;16(10):e0258102. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258102. eCollection 2021.
In earlier research, both higher levels of noise and odour annoyance have been associated with decreased mental health. Presumably, these perceptions can trigger feelings of threat and stress reactions and in turn evoke psychological distress. There are two important lacunas in the research on this topic: most studies only consider either noise or odour annoyance and not their relative effect on psychological distress and there is scarce evidence about whether different sociodemographic groups experience more psychological distress due to noise and odour annoyance. Starting from the diversity in the available coping resources and in their daily life patterns, we distinguish gender, age and educational level as relevant sociodemographic variables. Using data from the Health Monitor (n = 25236) in Noord-Brabant, we found using Ordinary Least Squares Regression that individuals that reported higher levels of noise and odour annoyance reported higher levels of psychological distress. Furthermore, the effect of noise annoyance was relatively stronger compared to that of odour annoyance. Regarding the interaction effects, we found that younger adults' psychological distress was more strongly affected by noise annoyance compared to older adults, but not by odour annoyance. The psychological distress of individuals with no or primary education was more strongly affected by both noise and odour annoyance compared those with tertiary education, but not when compared to those who completed lower or higher secondary education. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find different effects between men and women. Though the evidence for the interactions was mixed, classic health inequalities along age and education lines are reinforced when considering the relationship between noise and odour annoyance and psychological distress.
在早期的研究中，较高水平的噪声和气味烦恼都与心理健康下降有关。据推测，这些感知可能会引发威胁感和应激反应，进而引起心理困扰。在这个主题的研究中有两个重要的空白：大多数研究只考虑噪声或气味烦恼，而不考虑它们对心理困扰的相对影响，也很少有证据表明不同的社会人口群体是否会因噪声和气味烦恼而经历更多的心理困扰。从现有应对资源的多样性和日常生活模式出发，我们将性别、年龄和教育水平作为相关的社会人口学变量。使用北布拉班特省健康监测（n=25236）的数据，我们发现使用普通最小二乘法回归，报告噪声和气味烦恼水平较高的个体报告心理困扰水平较高。此外，噪声烦恼的影响相对较强，而气味烦恼的影响则较弱。关于交互效应，我们发现，与老年人相比，年轻成年人的心理困扰受噪声烦恼的影响更大，但不受气味烦恼的影响。没有或接受过小学教育的个体的心理困扰受噪声和气味烦恼的影响比接受过高等教育的个体更强烈，但与接受过中等或高等教育的个体相比则不然。与我们的预期相反，我们没有发现男女之间的不同影响。尽管交互作用的证据不一，但当考虑噪声和气味烦恼与心理困扰之间的关系时，沿年龄和教育线的经典健康不平等现象会得到加强。
