Stroke Health Center

Traffic Noise Raises Stroke Risk

Reasons for Link Between Noise and Stroke Are Not Clear

Sorensen says that though the mechanisms that would link noise to stroke remain undetermined, they likely are the same ones that are involved in the link of noise with hypertension and heart attacks.

The noise acts “as a stressor and disturbs sleep, which results in increased blood pressure and heart rate, as well as increased level of stress hormones,” she says. “Taken together, all of these could increase the risk for cardiovascular diseases.”

She says older people have more “fragmented sleep patterns” and are thus more susceptible to sleep disturbances, and that this fact could explain the apparent correlation between road noise and increased stroke risk in this age group.

“This is the first study on the association between transport noise and risk for stroke, as previous studies on transport noise focused mainly on hypertension and ischemic heart disease,” the authors write.

The study is published Jan. 26 in the European Heart Journal.