Skip to main content

Table 1 Participant characteristics, overall and by country, the HYENA study, 2004–2006

From: Exposure to aircraft and road traffic noise and associations with heart disease and stroke in six European countries: a cross-sectional study

 

Overall

UK

Germany

Netherlands

Sweden

Greece

Italy

No. of participants

4712

558

968

881

997

609

699

No. of cases of heart disease and stroke (%)

276 (5.9)

49 (8.8)

77 (8.0)

36 (4.1)

54 (5.4)

35 (5.7)

25 (3.6)

No. of cases of myocardial infarctiona

133 (2.8)

14 (2.5)

46 (4.8)

19 (2.2)

29 (2.9)

14 (2.3)

11 (1.6)

No. of cases of angina pectorisa

144 (3.1)

34 (6.1)

28 (2.9)

21 (2.4)

26 (2.6)

22 (3.6)

13 (1.9)

No. of cases of strokea

63 (1.3)

12 (2.2)

24 (2.5)

2 (0.2)

13 (1.3)

7 (1.1)

5 (0.7)

Daytime aircraft noise (dB(A))b

       

 Mean (SD)b

52 (9.5)

57 (9.7)

51 (10.7)

55 (6.3)

52 (8.6)

52 (7.2)

46 (10.3)

 Range

35–76

35–76

35–74

38–74

35–66

37–66

35–70

Night-time aircraft noise (dB(A))

       

 Mean (SD)

41 (9.2)

49 (10.5)

40 (10.0)

42 (8.9)

40 (7.9)

42 (4.6)

35 (6.3)

 Range

30–70

30–70

30–65

31–65

30–58

32–53

30–54

24 hour road traffic noise (dB(A))

       

 Mean (SD)

53 (7.5)

53 (5.3)

56 (8.1)

54 (7.1)

50 (5.3)

47 (4.9)

55 (9.1)

 Range

45–77

45–75

45–73

45–74

45–71

45–69

45–77

Average NO2 (μg/m3)

       

 Mean (SD)

23.2 (1.3)

37 (3.5)

Not

32 (4.9)

8 (3.8)

Not

Not

 Range

1–58

31–58

available

25–55

1–28

Available

available

Age

       

 Mean (SD)

58 (7.0)

59 (6.9)

57 (7.3)

58 (6.9)

57 (6.7)

58 (7.7)

57 (6.8)

 Range

45–70

45–70

45–70

46–70

45–70

45–70

45–70

Gender (%)

       

 Male

49.6

51.8

48.2

49.2

51.8

45.7

50.8

 Female

50.4

48.2

51.8

50.8

48.2

54.3

49.2

Years in education (%)

       

 1 Lowest quartile

24.5

21.9

13.2

18.6

23.5

40.4

37.5

 2

25.3

26.0

55.4

35.3

15.9

3.9

2.6

 3

25.8

32.3

16.0

26.6

35.9

12.6

30.5

 4 Highest quartile

24.3

19.9

15.4

19.5

24.8

43.0

29.5

Ethnicity (%)

       

 White

95.7

71.5

98.5

98.4

98.6

99.8

99.6

 Non-white

4.4

28.5

1.5

1.6

1.4

0.2

0.4

BMI

       

 Mean (SD)

27 (4.6)

28 (4.9)

28 (5.0)

27 (4.1)

26 (4.4)

28 (4.5)

26 (4.5)

 Range

15–69

18–56

16–69

17–48

15–59

16–57

16–48

Physical activity (%)c

       

 <once/week,

32.5

46.5

26.5

15.4

31.4

32.0

53.5

 1–3 times/week

22.9

22.9

23.2

27.5

25.4

17.3

18.2

 >3 times/week

44.6

30.6

50.3

57.1

43.2

50.7

28.3

Smoking status (%)c

       

 Never

40.4

52.8

31.5

43.9

37.4

35.2

47.7

 Past

34.5

34.6

37.7

32.5

43.8

23.3

28.5

 Current

25.1

12.6

30.8

23.7

18.8

41.6

23.8

Alcohol consumption (%)c

       

 None

28.3

31.9

32.3

19.8

24.6

37.6

27.9

 1–7 units/week

46.4

35.9

51.1

38.6

63.4

43.1

34.5

 8–14 units/week

13.8

15.8

9.9

21.0

9.5

10.3

18.6

 >14 units/week

11.5

16.3

6.6

20.6

2.5

9.1

19.1

  1. ano. of cases of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and stroke do not add up to no. of cases of heart disease and stroke because one participant could have more than one condition.
  2. bdB(A), a measure of sound level in decibels A-weighted to approximate the typical sensitivity of the human ear; SD, Standard Deviation.
  3. csome missing values were excluded: physical activity 0.3%; smoking status 0.5%; alcohol consumption 2.7%.
Back to article page

Environmental Health

ISSN: 1476-069X