Open Collections

Yu, Xing

University of British Columbia

Background: Noise pollution has been linked to impaired development in a variety of language comprehension activities, including speaking, reading, and memory. The underlying processes, however, are not fully understood. Residential greenness, on the other hand, has been found to reduce noise, but this modifying effect of greenness on noise has not been adequately investigated in the environmental health literature. Objectives: To characterize the association between residential exposure to noise and language development and the potential modifying effects of greenspace in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. Methods: The study was conducted within the framework of the Born to be Wise project and used linked data to conduct descriptive statistical analyses to summarize community-level exposures, as well as individual-level health and community-level socio-demographic information. Multilevel multivariable models were built to characterize the association between residential exposure to noise and children’s language development. Stratified analyses were conducted to assess whether differences exist in effect estimates of biological sex and age. The propensity score matching method was employed as a secondary analysis to replicate the associations. Results: The study included 30,048 children for which there was data on noise exposure. The mean noise level was 63.5 dB(A), and the mean percentage of vegetation within a 250 m buffer was 31.4%. This study found the increase in residential exposure to noise independently decreased the language developmental outcomes in basic literacy (Unadjusted: -0.14, CI: -0.11~ -0.16; Adjusted: -0.09, CI: -0.06 ~ -0.11), advanced literacy (Unadjusted: -0.22, CI: -0.17 ~ -0.27, adjusted: -0.14, CI: -0.09~-0.18), and communication and general knowledge (Unadjusted: -0.36, CI: -0.32 ~0.40, adjusted: -0.08, CI: -0.11~-0.15). The greenspace found to have minimal moderation effects on the adverse effects of noise on language development. Conclusions: This study found association between higher residential exposure to noise and impaired language development, and that greenspace had minimal effect modification. Future studies can be conducted using longitudinal data to improve the evidence level. This research also demonstrates that greenspace is not remediation solution to noise pollution, the health policy can be pursued by acoustic design to attenuate noise for better children’s language development outcomes.

Text

2024-09-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85993

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/