Is noise annoyance from neighbours in multi-storey housing associated with fatigue and sleeping problems?

Danish Health and Morbidity Surveys including questions about neighbour noise and traffic noise have been carried out each 3-5 years since year 2000, the latest one in 2017. In all five surveys, the neighbour noise annoyance in multi-storey housing was higher than annoyance from traffic noise. In 2017, 14,022 respondents (response rate 56%) completed the self-administered questionnaire, out of which 3,893 adult Danes lived in multi-storey houses. Noise annoyance was assessed by asking the respondent about noise annoyance from neighbours and traffic, respectively, in their home during the past two weeks. Fatigue and sleeping problems during the past two weeks were assessed with a checklist that included eight different health outcomes (including the two mentioned). In total, 36% reported having been very/slightly bothered by neighbour noise and 22% by traffic noise. Noise annoyance from neighbours was strongly associated with both health outcomes. For example, individuals being very annoyed by noise from neighbours had 2.91 times higher odds of being very bothered by fatigue. Similar associations were also observed for traffic noise annoyance. Although causality cannot be established in the present cross-sectional study, it is concluded that noise annoyance from neighbours is strongly associated with both fatigue and sleeping problems.