Korean J Aerosp Environ Med.  2004 Dec;14(4):126-134.

Health States of Residents near by US Military Camps

• Ju YS
• Kwon YJ

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the relation between health states of residents near by US military camps and noise caused by their aircrafts, in the cities of Chuncheon, Gunsan, and Daegue. From November 2001 to July 2002, we surveyed 426 residents for psychosocial well-being states, psychiatric problems, infertility and sleep disorders by questionnaire, and applied pure-tone audiometry to 83 residents for measuring hearing abilities at qualified medical institutes. The residents near by military camps were more suffered from psychosocial and psychiatric problems, infertility, and sleep disorders than residents of the control areas. In the aspects of psychiatric problems, residents living within 50m from the military camp boundaries had 5.42 times higher risk and those living at the outward had 3.57 times higher than the control residents. And nearby residents had more decreased hearing abilities than the control residents by over 10dB in whole frequencies, statistically confirmed by mixed model with age adjustment. The residents near by US military camps were suffered from psychosocial and psychiatric problems, infertility, sleep disorders and hearing disturbances, induced by noise of US military aircrafts.

Keyword

Noise; Psychiatric problem; Hearing disturbance; US military camp

MeSH Terms

Academies and Institutes
Aircraft
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Daegu
Gangwon-do
Hearing
Humans
Infertility
Jeollabuk-do
Military Personnel*
Noise
Sleep Wake Disorders
Surveys and Questionnaires