If you grew up on a busy road you are now more likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety and psychotic behaviour, a study claims.
Researchers in Britain analyzed data from more than 9,000 children born in the 1990s and living in various urban, suburban and rural areas.
The team looked at their levels of exposure to pollution and traffic noise during childhood, and followed three times during their teenage years and early adulthood.
They found that children who grew up surrounded by more air and noise pollution were up to 22 percent more likely to have depression, anxiety and “psychotic experiences” such as hallucinations and intrusive thoughts than children in quieter, cleaner areas.
Researchers in Britain found that children who grew up surrounded by more air and noise pollution were up to 22 percent more likely to have depression, anxiety and “psychotic experiences.”
“Our findings suggest an important role of early life air pollution exposure (including prenatal) in the development of mental health problems in young people,” the researchers wrote. They also called pollution and noise exposure “harmful” to mental health.
They noted that noise pollution “can increase anxiety by increasing stress and disrupting sleep” and “affect cognition, which can increase anxiety by affecting concentration during school years.”
They said air pollution has also been shown to cause inflammation in the brain, damage tissues and lead to low birth weight. These factors can increase the risk of psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.
Participants included 9,065 children born between April 1, 1991 and December 31, 1992 in southern Britain.
More than 95 percent of the participants were white.
The team measured the pollution and noise levels that participants experienced from pregnancy to age 12.
The researchers interviewed the children aged 13, 18 and 24 about their psychotic experiences, including hallucinations, delusions and intrusive thoughts.
In total, 19.5 percent of participants between the ages of 13 and 24 had psychotic experiences, 11.4 percent reported depression and 9.7 percent were anxious.
In childhood, participants exposed to high levels of air pollution were nine percent more likely to have psychotic experiences and 11 percent more likely during pregnancy. Pollution was also linked to a 10 percent increased risk of depression.
In addition, those who lived in louder areas had a 19 percent increased risk of anxiety in childhood and 22 percent in adolescence.
One limitation is that the data is observational, so the team cannot determine whether pollution and noise directly caused the mental health problems.
And the data set included mostly white children from affluent families, and the data was limited to only children in Britain.
The participants were also only measured up to age 24, so there is no data on whether they developed mental health problems later in life.
“There is now an urgent need for further longitudinal research with more precise measurements of air and noise pollution and for replication using quasi-experimental designs,” the researchers wrote.
The research was published in JAMA network opened.