ABSTRACT Noise appears to impact mental health. Few studies have examined the role of noise annoyance in mental health. The study aims to investigate the mediating and moderating roles of noise sensitivity and long‐term disease in the relationship between noise annoyance and mental health among the Bangladeshi population. This cross‐sectional study includes 764 participants from two metropolitan city areas using a mixed (probability and non‐probability) sampling technique. The Bangla‐adapted Noise Sensitivity Scale (NSS), Bangla‐translated Noise Annoyance Scale (NAS), and Bangla‐adapted Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS‐21) scale were used to measure the noise sensitivity, noise annoyance, and mental health of the recruited participants, respectively. The moderated mediation analyses were examined using the Hayes PROCESS macro. The mean age of the participants was 28.98 ± 10.12 years, ranging from 18 to 69 years old. Among 764 participants, 48% were male, and 52% were female. Noise annoyance and mental health were positively correlated ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01). The total effect of noise annoyance on mental health was statistically significant ( β = 0.82, p < 0.01). The effect of noise annoyance on noise sensitivity was statistically significant ( β = 0.29, p < 0.01), and the effect of noise sensitivity on mental health ( β = 0.47, p < 0.01). The effect of noise annoyance via noise sensitivity on mental health was positive and significant ( β = 0.69, p < 0.01). The indirect effect was moderated by long‐term disease ( β = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.00, 0.24). The moderated mediation model explained 14%. Higher noise annoyance is related to mental health problems and noise sensitivity. Long‐term disease strengthens the noise annoyance‐mental health relationship. Health professionals and policymakers can effectively utilize these findings to enhance the mental health of city dwellers.
Sarker et al. (Sun,) studied this question.