Living near busy roads? Here's how you are more vulnerable to high blood pressure
1 min read 23 Mar 2023, 08:32 PM ISTThe more noisy areas tend to have more pollution and both factors combine to increase the level of hypertension
PremiumA new study has revealed that the noises around traffic, horns, and engine volume can be linked to increased hypertension, i.e. high blood pressure. The report of the study also added that people living near roads and constantly hearing road traffic noises are more vulnerable to developing high blood pressure. The risk of hypertension increases with the level of vehicular pollution people are exposed to while on the road or living near a busy road
The study by a team from the American College of Cardiology used residential addresses of people for the Common Noise Assessment Method and assessed the health data of people living near roads over a median of 8.1 years. The results of the study published in the journal JACC revealed that people living near roads are more likely to develop high blood pressure.
According to a cardiovascular professor, Kazem Rahimi, who talked to the news platform CNN, the more noisy areas tend to have more pollution and both factors combine to increase the level of hypertension.
He added that they did not detect a threshold for the level of noise responsible for hypertension, but the risk increased with the level of noise. The doctor said that the association between hypertension and noise was graded, the higher the noise, the higher hypertension.
Hypertension has been one of the major non-communicable diseases in India and in the year 2015, around 1.6 million people died from the disease in the country, according to National Centre for Biotechnology Information. It is estimated that better hypertension control can prevent 400,000–500,000 premature deaths in India.
UN Sustainable Development Goals highlight the importance of high rates of hypertension control for achieving the target of a 1/3 reduction in non-communicable disease mortality by 2030.
The condition increases the risks of heart attacks and strokes, which are some of the major causes of non-communicable deaths in the world and according to World Health Organisation, around 46% of adults are not even aware of their hypertension.
