First extensive Japanese healthy survey on wind turbine noise; Relationship between hearing wind turbine noise and prevalence of sleep disturbance using self-administered questionnaires

Introduction Wind energy is an important component of future strategies for clean power supply. Opposition to the construction of wind turbines is often founded on media reports that a number of people living within the vicinity of wind farms experience a range of nonspecific symptoms such as sleep disturbance, headaches, ear problems, dizziness, nausea, and heart palpitations. Therefore we investigated the relationship wind turbine noise and sleep disturbance. Methods We examined cross-sectional study at southern island consisting of 26 wind turbines in Japan. A couple of our original self-administered questionnaires, which included the evaluation of depression (K-6 questionnaires), poor self-related health question, information on sleep quality, and night sleepiness, were delivered to 4234 households by mail in December 2013. Relationship between subjective hearing wind turbine noise and prevalence of sleep disturbance was examined using by Multivariate logistic analysis. Results Response rate of questi...