Environmental Noise as Emerging Psychosocial Risk Factor: Effects on Mental Health and Sexual Well-being
Umesh Kumar, Priya Darshini, Shubhra, Kaushal Kishore Sharma, Abhinav Sahay, Kundan KumarObjective:
A narrative review exploring the current evidence connecting environmental noise pollution to psychological distress, mental health problems and psychosexual health issues.
Methods:
Environmental noise pollution is a worldwide public health threat to more than 77 million people and to more than half of the European Union population; most noise pollution occurs in cities. Despite not being a directly audible effect of traffic, chronic noise exposure to noise pollution affects mental health disorders and impaired psychosexual health. The present literature review aims to identify and review the available peer-reviewed literature between 2010 and 2024 from different multidisciplinary databases. We collected relevant papers related to environmental noise pollution, stress responses to environmental noise, environmental noise pollution effects on mental health problems, sleep disturbance and sexual health.
Results:
The results from the examined papers indicate that transportation noise and community noise may lead to activation of the HPA axis, increased stress, elevated cortisol levels, increases in catecholamines and sympathetic nerve system activity. In line with stress exposure to environmental noise, impaired sleep may occur, as well as psychological discomfort, anxiety and depression, as well as decreased cognition and memory. Also, stress and hormonal deregulation have led to reduced libido, impotence, menstrual irregularities, infertility and impaired sexual satisfaction. Lower-income populations, children and elderly populations are disproportionately affected by noise pollution.
Conclusions:
Environmental noise may affect mental health and psychosexual health through multiple biological, psychological and social factors. Sleep disturbance and chronic stress seem to be critical mediators connecting noise exposure and impaired mental and psychosexual health outcomes. Environmental noise pollution may emerge as a new psychosocial risk factor and a modifiable risk factor determinant of mental and sexual health; thus, we need better regulatory policies and urban noise mitigation interventions as well as increased multidisciplinary studies to determine the health consequences of noise pollution.