Community noise annoyance assessment in an urban agglomeration

In urban areas community noise is one of the important factors in producing deterioration of both well-being and the quality of life. The aim of the study was to compare two noise annoyance surveys and two noise annoyance scales in the period of 15 years in selected areas of Slovak capital Bratislava, to calculate risks of community noise annoyance and disturbance in the observed samples. Noise annoyance risks were calculated by bivariate and stratified analysis in the form of odds ratio and Mantel-Haenszel weighted odds ratio from 2x2 and 2xn tables. The use of validated five-grade scale of noise annoyance assessment gives higher possibilities for more detailed analysis, allows to calculate the indicator--percentage of highly annoyed subjects (% HA), the rate of highly annoyed individuals. The percentage of highly annoyed subjects was 18% in the year 2004, which is comparable with recently published studies. The percentage of respondents that were not at all annoyed by road traffic noise has been decreased during the 15 year period by 10% (42% vs 32%). The increase of subjective community noise annoyance risks has been observed after 15 years as well. The sample from the year 2004 has been more annoyed by road traffic noise, neighbourhood noise, noise from entertainment facilities, noise from industry and railway noise. The highest risk increase has been observed in the entertainment facilities noise annoyance (OR(MH) =1.51; 95% CI = 0.90-2.52 vs OR(MH) = 4.47; 95% CI = 2.75-7.33). Using of standard five-grade noise annoyance questionnaire gives higher possibilities for data analysis in the studies investigating the influence of environmental noise annoyance on selected population groups (Tab. 3, Ref. 7).