7 out of 10 French people say they are regularly bothered by noise, and 21% feel that their sensitivity to this nuisance has increased since the health crisis.
- Noise particularly impacts women (for 70% of them), 50-64 year olds (69%), managers (73%), teleworkers (75%) and finally residents of the Paris area (79 %).
According to a new Ifop survey conducted for the JNA association, the French are increasingly bothered by noise, which has significant consequences for their health.
Sleep disturbances, stress, headaches
“Major fact: young people and those under 35 are expressing themselves strongly on the subject this year, contrary to popular belief”, first note the pollsters. 7 out of 10 French people say they are regularly bothered by noise at home, at work, in schools or outside, and 21% feel that their sensitivity to this nuisance has increased since the health crisis. Between 2016 and today, noise annoyance has shifted between day and night: +7 points for day and -15 points for night, “particularly because of the reduction in night outings following the anti-Covid confinements”, analyzed this morning during a press conference Marie Fevrat, researcher at the IFOP.
As a result, the impacts of noise on health and quality of life have increased since 2020, with a difference of 10 points on sleep disorders (1 in 2 French people), 6 points on fatigue (54%) , loss of concentration (56%) or aggressiveness (49%) and 7 points on stress (51%) or headaches (46%). “Noise pollution of course impacts hearing health by triggering deafness and tinnitus, but also overall health”recalls Professor Jean-Luc Puel, president of the JNA association. “For example, we know that stress causes cardiovascular diseases”he continues.
“The audition has not yet returned to morals”
However, only 1 in 5 French people mention their noise annoyance to their attending physician and only 1 in 5 French people had a medical check-up at the ENT doctor less than five years ago, a proportion that has not changed for 10 years. And if deafness and tinnitus rank 5th among French people’s health concerns, 1 out of 2 is not well informed on the subject. “Hearing has not yet become commonplace: we still do not test it at school or via occupational medicine. There is still a lot to do in this area”, deplores Jean-Luc Puel.
Positive point of the survey: 66% of French people have the good reflex to limit their listening volume and 46% to integrate hearing breaks into their daily lives. Hearing recovery time even seems to be setting in among young people, with 51% of 18/24s indicating they do so regularly, as do 47% of those under 35. “French people should also know that when you suffer an auditory trauma, you have to act as quickly as possible by going to the emergency room or to an ENT specialist without making an appointment. If nothing is done within two days of overexposure to sound, hearing is no longer recoverable”remember Roselyne Nicolas, vice-president of the France Acouphènes association.
Faced with these figures, the JNA association recommends launching a national noise reduction plan and recognizing hearing as a major national cause, in particular in order to question exposure to noise during any medical treatment or to generalize screening. .
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