Annoyance and Health-Related Quality of Life: A cross-sectional study involving two noise sources

Noise remains a potent degrader of health in many global contexts, capable of inducing severe annoyance and sleep disturbance. An epidemiological study was undertaken to compare noise annoyance and health-related quality of life of individuals residing close to a major international airport or wind turbine complex with those located in demographically matched areas. Results indicate that domains of health-related quality of life may be degraded in those living in areas more likely to induce noise annoyance. Furthermore, the addition of aviation noise to environments already encroached by road noise may induce further annoyance and degradations in health-related quality of life, indicating that one noise sources may not mask the impact of another.