Traffic related air pollution and noise on cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review

摘要

Objective: This study financed by the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health aim of this review was to assess the confounding effect of one traffic-related exposure (noise or air pollutants) on the association between the other exposure and cardiovascular outcomes. Methods: A systematic review of English and French literature was conducted with the bibliographic databases Medlines and Embase. The confounding effects in studies were assessed by using the change in the point estimate with a cut-off point 10%. Results: The literature search yield 180 articles; 9 articles met our selection criteria. For most studies, the modification of the association between traffic-related noise or air pollutants vis-a-vis cardiovascular outcomes produced changes in point estimates lower than 10%. However, the results were inconsistent when assessing the effects on blood pressure, which may underlie the presence of a small confounding-effect. Conclusion: The results from this review suggest that important confounding of cardiovascular effects by traffic-related noise or reported air pollutants is unlikely. Studies with a standardized methodology and assessing the effects of specific traffic-related pollutants are needed to properly assess confounding effects.