Long-term exposure to traffic noise and the incidence of hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Background: Hypertension is the major global preventable risk factor in cardiovascular diseases. While traffic noise is a highly disruptive environmental stressor in contemporary cities, its longitudinal causal association with hypertension remains debatable in past research. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of high-quality cohort studies to evaluate the correlation between long-term traffic noise exposure and the risk of hypertension in adults. Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched to identify relevant published literature. Prospective or retrospective cohort studies examining the relationship between long term exposure to traffic noise with the occurrence of hypertension in adults were incorporated. The quality of the research studies was evaluated based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale methodologically. The association was estimated by data pooling with fixed-or random-effect models and estimated by calculating the HR and its 95%CI. Results: 11 cohort studies with 1,353,481 participants were included into the present research. The results indicated that in cohorts analyzing traffic noise as a binary variable, higher exposure was significantly associated with an increased risk of hypertension (HR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01-1.13, Conclusion: Long-term exposure to traffic noise is significantly associated with an increased risk of hypertension in the adult population. Incorporating environmental noise assessment and mitigation measures into public health strategies can contribute to the comprehensive management of hypertension in the population. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251270952.