Study of association between noise levels and stress in traffic policemen of Bengaluru city

The IT capital of India, Bengaluru in 21st century has seen an unprecedented increase in vehicular noise caused by exponential increase in the number of vehicles. With the steady rise of vehicular traffic in the city, policemen manning the traffic are being exposed to all kinds of health hazards. Noise not only affects hearing but also trigger the body’s stress response. The objectives were to measure noise levels at major traffic junctions in Bengaluru city and the association between noise levels and stress in traffic policemen. The study included 60 traffic policemen deputed at different junctions of Bengaluru. Informed consent was taken and ethical clearance was obtained. Road traffic noise was measured using sound level meter. Stress questionnaire which consisted of questions like sleep deprivation, tension, headache etc was administered to which the subjects responded on five- point likert scale. The stress levels thus obtained was correlated with noise levels using Pearson Correlation coefficient. Road traffic noise ranged from 71.2 to 91dB. There was a significant positive correlation between stress and noise level (r = +0.578, p =0.00). Present study showed there is a significant positive correlation between noise levels & stress. Higher the noise level more is the stress in traffic policemen. Hence some preventive modalities should be undertaken to prevent psycophysiological problems in long run because of job related stress in traffic policemen