Abstract:
To date, there is scarce evidence on the association between sleep disorders and noise generated by wind turbines. We searched six relevant electronic databases from the inception to May 2023 for relevant articles. The methodological quality of the included articles was evaluated using the US National Institutes of Health tool. Fifteen articles met the inclusion criteria. The overall prevalence of sleep disorders among residents close to wind turbines was 34% (95% Confidence Interval, 0.22-0.47). Univariate meta-regressions for distance and sound power level showed that at higher distance the prevalence of sleep disorders decreases (p = 0.010) and with a higher sound power level the prevalence increases (p = 0.037). Furthermore, this systematic review and meta-analysis highlighted that the overall quality of current research on this topic is poor, and the methods to measure the results are often based on subjective assessments and not validated questionnaires. In conclusion, our preliminary findings suggest that there may be a possible relation between exposure to wind turbines and sleep disorders, although no conclusions can be drawn in terms of causality due to the nature of the retrieved data and the poor quality of current evidence. Future studies should adopt a longitudinal design and focus on objective measurements, supported by validated subjective methods such as questionnaires.
摘要:
迄今为止,关于睡眠障碍与风力涡轮机产生的噪音之间的关联的证据很少。从成立到2023年5月,我们搜索了六个相关的电子数据库,以获取相关文章。使用美国国立卫生研究院工具评估纳入文章的方法学质量。15篇文章符合纳入标准。靠近风力涡轮机的居民中睡眠障碍的总体患病率为34%(95%置信区间,0.22-0.47)。距离和声功率水平的单变量荟萃回归表明,在较高的距离下,睡眠障碍的患病率降低(p=0.010),而在较高的声功率水平下,患病率升高(p=0.037)。此外,这项系统的回顾和荟萃分析强调了当前关于这一主题的研究的总体质量较差,衡量结果的方法通常基于主观评估,而不是经过验证的问卷。总之,我们的初步发现表明,暴露于风力涡轮机和睡眠障碍之间可能存在关系,尽管由于检索到的数据的性质和当前证据的质量较差,无法得出因果关系的结论。未来的研究应采用纵向设计,并侧重于客观测量,由经过验证的主观方法支持,如问卷。