Association between noise annoyance and mental health outcomes - A systematic review

To date, most reviews on noise and mental health have focused on noise exposure rather than noise annoyance. In this systematic review, we synthesised the evidence on the relationship between high noise annoyance and mental health outcomes. We carried out a literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and conference proceedings and references on noise annoyance and mental health published between 2000-2021. We identified 12 articles that met the inclusion criteria. We conducted meta-analysis of studies of noise annoyance in relation to depression, anxiety and subjective mental well-being, regardless of noise source, assuming that the annoyance was having the biological effect. In meta-analyses, we found that depression was approximately two-fold greater in those who were highly noise-annoyed (three studies) but no statistically significant association with antidepressant medication (three studies). We found significant associations between noise annoyance and anxiety across four studies, including in subgroup analysis. For subjective mental well-being (five studies), there was ~110% increased risk of mental health problems, but with high heterogeneity. In conclusion, findings are suggestive of a potential link between noise annoyance and poorer mental health based on a very small number of studies. More evidence is needed to confirm this.