Long-term effects of noise reduction measures on noise annoyance and sleep disturbance: the Norwegian facade insulation study

J Acoust Soc Am. 2013 Jun;133(6):3921-8. doi: 10.1121/1.4802824.

Abstract

The Norwegian facade insulation study includes one pre-intervention and two post-intervention surveys. The facade-insulating measures reduced indoor noise levels by 7 dB on average. Before the intervention, 43% of the respondents were highly annoyed by noise. Half a year after the intervention, the proportion of respondents who were highly annoyed by road traffic noise had been significantly reduced to 15%. The second post-intervention study (2 yr after the first post-intervention study) showed that the proportion of highly annoyed respondents had not changed since the first post-intervention study. The reduction in the respondents' self-reported sleep disturbances (due to traffic noise) also remained relatively stable from the first to the second post-intervention study. In the control group, there were no statistically significant differences in annoyance between the pre-intervention and the two post-intervention studies. Previous studies of traffic changes have reported that people "overreact" to noise changes. This study indicated that when considering a receiver measure, such as facade insulation, the effect of reducing indoor noise levels could be predicted from exposure-response curves based on previous studies. Thus no evidence of an "overreaction" was found.

Publication types

  • Controlled Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Construction Materials*
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Housing*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Noise, Transportation / adverse effects*
  • Noise, Transportation / prevention & control*
  • Norway
  • Sleep Deprivation / etiology*
  • Sleep Deprivation / prevention & control*
  • Sleep Wake Disorders / etiology*
  • Sleep Wake Disorders / prevention & control*
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Urban Population*
  • Young Adult