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Table 2 Prevalence of noise disturbance and medical symptoms, stratified by gender, age and smoking

From: Home environment and noise disturbance in a national sample of multi-family buildings in Sweden-associations with medical symptoms

 

Female n = 3219 a (%)

Male n = 2483 a (%)

p b

18–40 y n = 1433 c (%)

41–65 y n = 2204 c (%)

> 65 y n = 2089 c (%)

p b

Smoker n = 683 d (%)

Non-smoker n = 4993 d (%)

p b

Total n = 5775 (%)

Noise disturbance in general at home e

12.0

11.7

0.713

16.2

13.4

7.2

< 0.001

17.3

11.2

< 0.001

11.9

Noise from inside of the building, from

 Lines and pipes f

8.9

8.7

0.771

12.9

9.8

4.9

< 0.001

11.8

8.4

0.005

8.9

 Ventilation/fans inside f

8.0

6.9

0.130

10.0

8.2

5.1

< 0.001

8.8

7.4

0.221

7.6

 Voice, radio, TV, music or similar sounds from neighbors f

14.1

12.0

0.022

21.6

13.6

6.8

< 0.001

14.9

13.0

0.169

13.2

 Scraping sound, footsteps, thumping or similar sounds from neighbors f

16.8

16.1

0.477

24.5

18.6

8.6

< 0.001

20.7

16.0

0.003

16.5

 Amusement centre in the property f

2.1

2.1

0.836

3.3

2.5

0.8

< 0.001

2.7

2.0

0.269

2.1

 Stairwell, elevators f

11.0

9.6

0.098

15.0

12.3

5.0

< 0.001

16.1

9.7

< 0.001

10.5

Noise from outside of the building, from

 Ventilation/fans/warm pumps f

4.7

4.0

0.225

4.0

5.4

3.6

0.011

3.6

4.5

0.299

4.5

 Road traffic f

16.7

15.4

0.183

18.3

18.0

12.6

< 0.001

19.2

15.7

0.021

16.1

 Train traffic f

3.4

2.7

0.183

3.4

3.6

2.3

0.053

2.3

3.2

0.205

3.1

 Flight traffic f

3.4

3.1

0.575

3.5

4.0

2.4

0.013

2.9

3.4

0.508

3.3

Any severe traffic noise disturbance g,h

7.5

6.7

0.267

8.1

7.9

5.5

0.004

8.0

7.0

0.387

7.2

Medical symptoms

 Weekly tiredness

26.3

19.0

< 0.001

31.7

22.6

16.7

< 0.001

27.0

22.6

0.015

23.1

 Weekly headache

10.6

5.6

< 0.001

10.6

9.6

5.2

< 0.001

12.7

7.9

< 0.001

8.5

 Weekly difficulty concentrating

6.5

4.1

< 0.001

7.2

5.6

3.8

< 0.001

6.1

5.4

0.462

5.5

  1. Bold values indicate p < 0.05.
  2. aParticipants with missing data on gender (n = 73) were excluded
  3. bp value by 2 × 3 Chi-square test
  4. cParticipants with missing data on age (n = 49) were excluded
  5. dParticipants with missing data on ownership (n = 99) were excluded
  6. eThe prevalence of reporting “bad” and “very bad” in the general noise disturbance question
  7. fThe prevalence of reporting “moderately”, “very” and “extremely” in the specific noise disturbance question
  8. gAny severe traffic noise disturbance was defined as reporting “often” to any of the following traffic noise caused disturbances: difficult to hear radio/TV, telephone calls being affected, normal conversations being affected, rest/relaxation being affected, difficulties in sleeping and being woken up from traffic noise
  9. hThe prevalence of reporting “yes, often (every week)”
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BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

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