Studying the association between noise exposure, stress and characteristics of green spaces: protocol and pilot study

Abstract

Urban areas are constantly growing, and densification is a common strategy to limit settlement expansion. However, this leads to loss of green spaces (GSs) and increasing noise pollution, which is detrimental to public health. Within a research project that aims at elucidating the stress-easing potential of green spaces in noise-polluted environments and the mediating and/or moderating role of annoyance, an extended cross-sectional field study will be performed in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. In total, 5000 participants will be contacted in three waves, during which an online survey will be carried out followed by a visit to a subsample at home to collect hair cortisol probes. Participants of this study were selected according to the characteristics of their residences (stratified by accessibility to GSs and noise exposure). Further, traits of individuals in addition to acoustic and non-acoustic attributes of GSs are accounted. Thus, the association of noise annoyance, perceived stress and long-term physiological stress responses among residents exposed to different road traffic noise levels and with different grades of access to GSs are studied. In this contribution, the study protocol and first results of a pilot study with 256 participants will be shown.