The Association Between Noise Pollution and Heart Disease.
Date
2020-05-06Author
Berger, Sarah
Yeshiva University, degree granting institution.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States and the world
for decades. It is therefore a highly researched topic as scientists, healthcare professionals,
government organizations and individuals are all seeking to understand the risk factors and
preventative measures associated with cardiovascular disease. It is generally understood that
many of these factors are dependent on lifestyle choices such as eating habits and physical
activity. New research suggests that noise pollution is a significant contributing factor to
heart disease as well. Noise pollution is associated with increased irritability and stress levels
in individuals, and it is also known to disrupt sleep patterns. All of these factors affect the
structure and function of the cardiovascular system, and it is therefore valuable to research
this phenomenon further. This study explores the relationship between noise pollution and
heart disease in New York City using 311 noise complaints as a metric for noise. This project
uses data from the New York City 311 and New York City EMS databases to evaluate the
association between 311 noise complaints and cardiac-related EMS calls in New York City
neighborhoods. The hypothesis is that heart disease, measured by number of cardiac-related
EMS calls, is more prevalent in noisier zip codes. The majority of the data cleansing and
analysis is done in Python and Awk on the Linux operating system, and the statistical
analysis is done in R. This project analyzes the statistical significance of the association
between noise level and number of cardiac calls in New York City neighborhoods using
regression analysis and hypothesis testing. The research and analysis show that there is some
positive relationship between noise level and the number of cardiac calls in New York City
neighborhoods, and that noise level is a significant predictor of cardiac calls at the 0.05, 0.01
and 0.001 levels.
Description
Senior honors thesis. Opt-out: For access, please contact yair@yu.edu
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/5643Collections
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