A Prospective Study of Some Effects of Aircraft Noise on Cognitive Performance in Schoolchildren

TLDR

The study recruited 326 children near Munich International Airport and the former airport, assigning them to noise‑exposed or control groups and collecting data at three waves before and after the airport switch. Following the airport switch, children newly exposed to the new airport’s noise exhibited impaired long‑term memory, reading, and speech perception, whereas those previously exposed to the old airport’s noise improved in long‑term memory, reading, and short‑term memory, with mediational analyses showing that reading deficits were not mediated by speech perception but that impaired recall was partly mediated by reading.

Abstract

Before the opening of the new Munich International Airport and the termination of the old airport, children near both sites were recruited into aircraft-noise groups (aircraft noise at present or pending) and control groups with no aircraft noise (closely matched for socioeconomic status). A total of 326 children (mean age = 10.4 years) took part in three data-collection waves, one before and two after the switch-over of the airports. After the switch, long-term memory and reading were impaired in the noise group at the new airport. and improved in the formerly noise-exposed group at the old airport. Short-term memory also improved in the latter group after the old airport was closed. At the new airport, speech perception was impaired in the newly noise-exposed group. Mediational analyses suggest that poorer reading was not mediated by speech perception, and that impaired recall was in part mediated by reading.