Foraster M, Eze IC, Vienneau D, Brink M, Cajochen C, Heritier H, Imboden M, Jeong A, Rudzik F, Thiesse L, Pieren R, Schaffner E, Wunderli JM, Roosli M, Probst-Hensch N. Long-term exposure to road, railway, and aircraft noise levels and their association with incidence of obesity and obesity parameters. Presented at the 12th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem; June 18, 2017. Zurich, Switzerland.

The contribution of different transportation noise sources to obesity and its subphenotypes remains understudied. We evaluated the associations of long-term exposure to road, railway and aircraft noise with measures of general, central obesity and incidence of overweight and obesity in an adult Swiss cohort using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. We assessed 4678 SAPALDIA cohort participants visited in 2001 and 2010/2011. We measured body mass index (BMI, kilograms/metre2 ), waist circumference (WC, centimetres), and Kyle body Fat Index (BF, %) and derived incidence by severity: overweight only (iOW, BMI: 25-29.9) or obesity (iOB, BMI: ≥ 30). We assigned annual average aircraft, railway, and road traffic noise levels at the most exposed dwelling façade (Ldensource, dB) using Swiss noise models for 2001 and 2011. Associations were evaluated with multivariable linear and multinomial regression models. We observed positive associations between Ldenroad and BMI, WC, %BF and iOB. Ldenrail and Ldenair were related to iOW. Associations were independent of the other noise sources and air pollution. Long-term exposure to road traffic noise may be more obesogenic than railway or aircraft noise.