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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%.
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Environmental Health

ISSN: 1476-069X