Pioneering study linking noise pollution to Parkinson’s finds 3% increase in risk for every 11.5dB rise in noise levels
  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    That’s a super weird correlation

    And “may” is doing a lot of work in that headline

      • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        Continued exposure to a certain level of sound seems it would be disconnected from a physical change to motor-nurons.

        The headline is meant to suggest causality, without straight up lying. Because that’a what gets views, and sells adds. But the data doesn’t remotely suggest it may cause Parkinson’s. At most it exacerbates some actual cause, and it only does that very slightly.

        • Novi Sad@feddit.orgOPEnglish
          0·
          1 month ago

          Noise consistently activates the stress axis, which governs extremely potent biochemical pathways and thus over time can bring about physical changes easily. Especially to sensitive tissues like nerve tissue. This is well established. It’s similar with disturbed sleep. For Parkinson’s disease specifically, the Guardian article mentions this:

          Existing research has found potential biological pathways that link noise exposure to Parkinson’s disease, largely due to stress responses and disrupted sleep.

          “Potential”, sure, but altogether (i.e. now also including the prospective (!) decade-long (!) cohort study with over three million (!) participants), the causal link is very probable.

          Regarding the magnitude observed here, I admit a hazard ratio of 1.04 (so +4%) is not large. Note, though, that it’s “per interquartile increment of 8.9 dB”. So going up three quartiles (+27 dB, about 7 times as loud) already gives you somewhat above 12% additional risk.

          This is territory where it’s getting relevant for personal and societal decision-making—especially when considering that Parkinson’s is just one disease of many.