Background

Recent years have seen growing, but still tentative, evidence of the potential associations of environmental noise and air pollution with mental disorders. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between residential noise and air pollution exposures and general mental health in young adults with a focus on underlying processes

Methods

We sampled 720 students (18–35 years) from one university in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Residential noise (L_Aeq; day equivalent noise level) and air pollution (NO₂) were assessed at participant's residential address by land use regression models. General mental health was measured with a short form of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The following putative mediators were considered: annoyance from environmental pollution, sleep disturbance, restorative quality of the neighborhood, neighborhood social cohesion, and commuting/leisure time physical activity. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the theoretically-indicated interplay between exposures, mediators, and GHQ.

Results

We observed an association between higher L_Aeq and GHQ, in which environmental annoyance and neighborhood restorative quality emerged as key mediators. First, L_Aeq was associated with higher annoyance, and through it with lower restorative quality, and then in turn with lower physical activity, and thus with higher GHQ. Simultaneously, higher annoyance was associated with higher sleep disturbance, and thereby with higher GHQ. NO₂ had no overall association with GHQ, but it was indirectly associated with it through higher annoyance, lower restorative quality, and lower physical activity working in serial.

Conclusion

We found evidence that increased residential noise was related to mental ill-health through several indirect pathways. Air pollution was associated with mental health only indirectly.

中文翻译：

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将住宅噪音和空气污染与年轻人的心理健康联系起来的途径

背景

近年来，越来越多的证据表明，环境噪声和空气污染与精神障碍之间可能存在关联，但仍是初步的证据。在本研究中，我们旨在研究年轻人的住宅噪声和空气污染暴露与一般心理健康之间的关联，重点是潜在过程

方法

我们从保加利亚普罗夫迪夫市的一所大学中抽取了720名学生（18-35岁）作为样本。通过土地利用回归模型在参与者的住所地址评估了居民噪声（L _Aeq；日等效噪声水平）和空气污染（NO ₂）。总体心理健康状况是通过简短形式的“一般健康状况调查表”（GHQ）进行衡量的。考虑了以下假定的调解人：环境污染带来的烦恼，睡眠障碍，邻里的恢复质量，邻里的社会凝聚力以及通勤/休闲时间的体育活动。使用结构方程模型来分析暴露，介体和GHQ之间理论上的相互作用。

结果

我们观察到较高的L _Aeq与GHQ之间的关联，其中环境烦恼和邻里恢复质量成为关键的中介。首先，L _Aeq与较高的烦恼相关，通过它具有较低的修复质量，然后与较低的体力活动相关，从而与较高的GHQ相关。同时，较高的烦恼与较高的睡眠障碍相关，从而与较高的GHQ相关。NO ₂与GHQ没有整体联系，但它通过较高的烦恼，较低的修复质量和较低的体力活动间接与之相关。

结论

我们发现有证据表明，住宅噪声的增加是通过几种间接途径与精神疾病相关的。空气污染仅与心理健康间接相关。