Iffat Atif, Adeela Mustafa, Ishaq Ahmed, Farah Rashid, Mohsin Javaid, Shahroz Saud Ahmed, Muhammad Ausaf Saleem, Waqas Ahmed.
Noise Related Health Issues among Residents of High Traffic Flow Areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;12(2):73-7.

Objective: To determine noise related health issues prevailing in the residents of high traffic flow areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Study Design: Cross sectional study. th Place and Duration of Study: High traffic flow residential areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad from 15 May to th 18 October, 2015. th th Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from 15 May to 18 October, 2015. A total of 352 respondents in the age group 25-65 years from high traffic flow residential areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were selected through non-probability convenience sampling technique. A structured closed ended questionnaire was administered and the collected data was analyzed through SPSS version 22. Results: Among the various findings of our study, difficulty in sleeping was a significant problem (87%), irrespective of the age of respondents. The annoyance (69%), stress (63.4%), easy fatigability (61.4%) and poor digestion (60.5%) were also significant predicaments owing to excessive noise exposure. The residents complained that noise was interfering with their speech (58.2%) and reducing their productivity leading to difficulty in concentrating on a task (55.1%) and reduced task performance (52.3%). Conclusion: The current study revealed that there are certain health issues attributed to noise, posing a major threat to the health of community and gradually worsening the burden of non-communicable diseases.

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