Abstract
BACKGROUND: Environmental noise exposure has been associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recently, noise annoyance was shown to induce atrial fibrillation, which was accompanied by significantly increased levels of midregional pro atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to analyze the association between noise annoyance, MR-proANP, incident cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality. METHODS: Levels of MR-proANP were measured in the first 5000 participants of the population-based Gutenberg Health Study. Annoyance was assessed separately for aircraft, road traffic, railway, neighborhood, and industrial/construction noise during the day and sleep. RESULTS: In cross-sectional analyses, aircraft noise annoyance during day and sleep, industrial/construction noise annoyance during day, and railway noise annoyance during sleep were independently associated with increased levels of MR-proANP after multivariable adjustment. After a 5-year follow-up period, there were 43 cases of incident atrial fibrillation and 103 of incident cardiovascular disease (comprising atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, or stroke). Moreover, there were 301 deaths after a mean follow-up of 7.42 ± 1.66 years. An odds ratio (OR) of 2.82 ([95% confidence interval (CI) 1.86; 4.35], p < 0.0001) for incident atrial fibrillation and an OR of 1.49 ([95% CI 1.13; 1.96], p = 0.0046) for incident cardiovascular disease per 1-standard deviation (SD) increase in MR-proANP levels were found. A 36% (hazard ratio: 1.36 [95% CI 1.19; 1.55], p < 0.0001) higher risk of death was found per 1-SD increase in MR-proANP levels. CONCLUSIONS: Noise annoyance may contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and is characterized by increased levels of MR-proANP.