Road traffic noise, air pollution and cardio-respiratory health in European cohorts: a harmonised approach in the BioSHaRE project

Background and aims: Few studies have investigated joint effects of road traffic noise and air pollution on cardiovascular outcomes. This project aims to quantify the joint and separate effects of both exposures on prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease and asthma as part of the EU-funded BioSHaRE project involving five European cohorts (EPIC-Oxford, EPIC-Turin, HUNT, Lifelines, UK Biobank). Methods: Health outcomes have been ascertained by self-report (prevalence) and medical record (incidence) and retrospectively harmonised across the five cohorts. Residential road traffic noise exposures for each participant are being estimated using a European noise model based on Common Noise Assessment Methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU). Cross-sectional epidemiological analyses are in progress, virtually pooled using DataSHIELD methods. Results: In total, 716,945 men and women are included, mostly >40 years. Initial analysis of EPIC-Oxford and Lifelines showed prevalence of self-reported hypertension to be 26%, high blood lipids 15% and asthma 11% and mean annual 24-hour noise estimates of 56.4 dB(A) (EPIC-Oxford) and 65.8 dB(A) (Lifelines). Correlations between noise estimates and NO2 are generally low (r~0.1 to 0.4). Conclusions: Pooling of individual level harmonised data from established cohorts offers the large sample sizes needed to investigate effects of road traffic noise and ambient air pollution on cardio-respiratory diseases.