The purpose of this research is to determine if exposure to relatively high noise levels produced by nearby jetplane traffic has, in children, a detrimental effect on their physical growth. Here physical growth is a measure of child health in the community. Children may be affected since they are likely to have spent a large proportion of their lives in the noisy environment and during that period they are susceptible to many environmental influences. Growth data are obtained through anthropometric examinations on approximately 300-500 subjects (age 5 through 12 years) from communities near an international airport where noise levels have been measured and are known to be high. Data on factors which may also affect growth (e.g., birthorder, family size, family income, etc.,) are obtained from personal interviews with children's families. The community has been divided into zones of noise exposure based on measurements of noise levels in the community and the analysis will compare physical growth in these zones to each other and to a similr but more remote community. The influence of other growth affecting variables will be considered and, if necessary, controlled statistically.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter