Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2025
A Pediatric Concussion Model in Mice: Closed Head Injury with Long-Term Disorders (CHILD)
Published on: February 7, 2025
Exploring the link between pediatric headaches and environmental noise exposure
Sunho Lee1, Kyung-Ran Kim2, Wanhyung Lee3
1Department of Pediatrics, CHA Ilsan Medical Center, CHA University, Goyang, Republic of Korea.
Insights
Environmental noise exposure is linked to prolonged headaches in children and adolescents. Both daytime and nighttime noise significantly correlated with increased headache duration in pediatric patients.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Environmental Health
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Headaches are common neurologic symptoms in children.
- Auditory discomfort and noise exposure are associated with headache pain.
- Understanding the link between noise and pediatric headaches is crucial.
Conclusions:
- Noise exposure is correlated with headaches in children and adolescents.
- Environmental noise, both day and night, is significantly associated with prolonged headache duration.
- Noise exposure is a relevant factor in extended headaches among pediatric patients.
Background:
Headaches are the most common neurologic symptoms in the pediatric population. Most primary headache in children and adolescents focuses on associated factors, including noise. Auditory discomfort is related to recognizing the pain. We aimed to analyze the headache profile of pediatric populations and the connection between noise exposure and head pain in children and adolescents.
Methods:
We reviewed retrospectively medical records of the pediatric population with headaches in Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital from January 2022 to April 2023. Personal headache profiling from self-questionnaires and environmental noise data from the National Noise Information System (NNIS) were used to analyze each variable, and chi-square tests and linear regression models by SAS were used to analyze the statistical correlation.
Results:
Of the 224 participants, 125 were clinically diagnosed with headaches. Of the 104 pubertal subjects, 56.7% were diagnosed with headaches, compared to 60% in the prepubertal group. Both daytime and nighttime noise was significantly higher in the diagnosed headache group than in the non-diagnosed group. Headache duration increased by daytime and nighttime noise with statistical significance in age-adjusted models.
Conclusion:
We found that noise exposure is correlated to headaches in children and adolescents. Daytime and nighttime environmental noise exposure was significantly associated with the duration of headaches through our data. Therefore, we assume that noise exposure is vitally relevant to prolonged headaches in the pediatric population. Further research is needed to improve our data.
