The development of Weinstein's noise sensitivity scale

Many studies have shown the significant correlation between noise annoyance and noise sensitivity identified by Weinstein's noise sensitivity scale (WNS). However, the validity of the scale has not been sufficiently assessed. This study was designed to investigate the validity of each question in WNS and to develop a more valid noise sensitivity measurement scale. A questionnaire study was conducted in a residential area along trunk roads in Kusatsu, Japan, and 301 responses were collected. In this paper, noise sensitivity was defined as the factor that induced individual variability in reactions caused by noise exposure and that is not affected by the noise exposure. The relationship between noise exposure and answers to each question in WNS was investigated by multiple logistic regression analysis, and the influence of response bias on the score of WNS was examined. The results showed that WNS contained some questions that were inappropriately related to noise exposure level and that the score was affected by response bias. The reported correlation between annoyance and the score of WNS could be confounded by noise exposure and response bias. A noise sensitivity measurement scale named WNS-6B was newly developed, excluding the biased questions from the original WNS and applying binary coding to six-response options in order to reduce the response bias. WNS-6B seemed to be more appropriate to assess noise sensitivity than the original scale.