**3.2 Community responses**

During the month of March 2020, the public's replies were gathered and recorded on a computer. The questionnaire was supplied to the participants both in online and offline mode. Those are expertise in the android mobile phones or in their PC or laptop they are responded to the questionnaire through online mode. Those are not comfortable in using these devices, asked the researcher to provide the such through offline mode and also provided to them as such. After getting their responses, it was then transferred in to MS Excel for its further analysis.

The questionnaire was completed by 150 people, as mentioned in the content and methods section. The average age of the responders was 37.8 years old, with a standard deviation of 9.4 years. **Table 6** lists the various personal characteristics of the individuals. **Table 6** clearly depicts that the majority of the participants are male respondent (59.3%), with 68.7% of the total completing their education at the graduation level. In the present study, majority of the participants are employed. Majority of the participants (78.7%) participated in this survey work are married. In the present study most of the young generation (48%) between the age of 18 to 30, responded to this questionnaire.

The Pearson Chi-square of noise discomfort to different demographic characters is shown in **Table 7**. **Table 7** clearly depicts that there is a good association between annoyance and gender of the present work. Again, there is no direct relationship between annoyance and other demographic characteristics, according to the data.

In this study it was found that 36.7% individuals were extremely irritated, while 39.5% remain silent. In a study conducted by Alimohammadi et al. [73] on White-collar


#### **Table 6.**

*Personal characteristics of respondents (in percentage).*


#### **Table 7.**

*Relation between demographic character and annoyance.*

employees in Teharan, it was discovered that married people were more irritated than unmarried people. But in the present study it was contradicted that result (*p* = 0.217).

The participants' perceptions on noise, health issues, hearing conditions, sound quality of the environment, environmental problems, opinion of participants on noise preventability, sensitivity to noise, annoyance, and the importance of controlling the town's noise were all examined in the current study and presented in the **Table 8**.

On awareness towards road traffic noise pollution, majority of the participants (59.3%) were aware of it. More than 30% respondents were strongly aware about the noise pollution, which is also a good sign for the society. Regarding health issues majority respondents (36.7%) opined about a little impact of noise pollution on their health, while 24.6% respondents remain silent and only 18% viewed that they suffered moderately by the noise pollution. On hearing condition most of the participants (38%) were in moderate condition, while 30% responded as good in condition. Only 27.3% opined that their hearing condition was not so good or in bad condition. How much the hearing problem is affected is not studied in the present study. The researcher aimed to conduct the audiometry study of these respondents very soon to know their actual level of hearing in the next study. Noise induced hearing loss is also the most frequently recognised occupational disease in many countries [79–81].

The sound quality of the town was not so good as per the response of the participants. Due to such issues, they face a lot of problems (56.7%) in their day-to-day life. According to the findings, 40.7% of the participants suffered illness, while most of them faced headache (54.7%) due to road traffic noise. How much it affects the public health and what are the possible symptoms are developed is to be investigated in the next phase of study. Majority of the respondents (57.3%) responded that they annoyed often. Running of vehicles (89.3%) is the major source of pollution, followed by railway (76.7%), two wheelers (75%), honking (70.7%) (**Table 8**).

The acoustic quality of the area was described as noisy by the majority of the participants (60%). According to the study, majority of the of interviewees felt that road traffic noise was polluting the environment. When the participants' knowledge was assessed, most of them said that road traffic noise poses a significant health risk. Noise pollution upset 67.3% of the participants, while 58.7% were sensitive to noise and 60% found it difficult to relax in these situations. More than 48% felt depressed, 82% were felt tired, 48.7% were not working in a stability manner. It may be due to the effect of the noise pollution.

The chi-square test was used to determine the relationship between age and annoyance in this study, and no link was found at *p* = 0.01. However, there is a strong association between annoyance and gender (*p* = 0.004). There was also a link between work place noise levels and annoyance, according to Allomohammadi et al. [73].


**Table 8.** *Participant's perception towards different aspects of noise pollution.* But this result is similar to the present study. It can be said that occupation is not a good characteristic towards annoyance. According to reports, there is no correlation between age, education, or marital status and the town's level of annoyance. The current study's findings are comparable to those of Ohrstrom et al. [82], who found that age, sex, and other characteristics do not explain differences in annoyance between people and is very similar to the results of the present study. However, it has been reported in many research that annoyance is the most vulnerable consequence of traffic noise exposure [83, 84], which contradicts the findings of the current study in many circumstances.

There is good association between gender and drowsiness of the public (*p* = 0.015) (**Table 9**). **Table 9** also demonstrates that there is an association between drowsy and qualification. **Table 10** depicts that there is an association between relaxation and gender (*p* = 0.001) and age (*p* = 0.006). Most of the demographic characters have a good association with noise sensitivity (**Table 11**). Noise sensitivity has a good association with gender (*p* = 0.001), age (*p* = 0.005), marital status (*p* = 0.001) and qualification (*p* = 0.038) of the present study (**Table 11**). **Table 12** reveals that both gender (*p* = 0.001) and marital status (*p* = 0.001) has an association with anxiety of the noise pollution (**Table 12**). Gender is not a significant element in the influence of noise concern, according to certain studies [5, 85]. Similar results also depicted in the present study. There was also a link between the individuals' age and sleep problems (*p* = 0.046). It was also said that age is not a significant factor when it comes to the effects of noise exposure [5, 80]. Increased parent-reported sleep issues were identified in the few studies that looked at the link between noise and child/adolescent sleep [23, 82]. Sleep fragmentation, sleep continuity, and total sleep time have all been linked to noise [24, 25]. There was no association between sleep duration and hourly minimum noise levels [86]. Again, it was also reported that there was no relation between sleep efficiency and mean noise levels, according to Missildine et al. [87].


#### **Table 9.**

*Relation between demographic character and drowsy.*


#### **Table 10.**

*Relation between demographic character and relax.*

*Impact of Noise Pollution during Covid-19: A Case Study of Balasore, Odisha DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104607*


#### **Table 11.**

*Relation between demographic character and sensitive.*


#### **Table 12.**

*Relation between demographic character and Anexiety.*

But, the result of the present study contradicts it and it shows that there is an association between sleep problems and noise level of the town (*p* = 0.016).

**Table 13** depicts the results of ANNOVA analysis between noise annoyance and demographic characteristics. The table clearly depicts that there is an association between annoyance and gender of the study. However, there is no statistically significant link between other demographic factors and annoyance. There is a link between sex and anxiety (*p* = 0.033) as seen in **Table 14**. There is no direct relation between sensitivity with the demographic characters except marital status (**Table 15**). **Table 16** reveals that


#### **Table 13.**

*Analysis of ANNOVA between demographic characteristics and annoyance.*


### **Table 14.**

*Analysis of ANNOVA between demographic characteristics and anxiety.*


#### **Table 15.**

*Analysis of ANNOVA between demographic characteristics and sensitivity.*

there is an association between relaxation and age (*p* = 0.008) and sex (*p* = 0.001) of the participants of the present study. **Table 17** shows the relation between annoyance and different environmental issues. This table clearly depicts that there is a strong association between relaxation, sensitivity, environmental noise, anxiety, irritation. Different vehicles are running on the main road of the town. During lock-down and unlock phases, ambulances are flowing from different areas of the town to the district hospital centre and also to the other clinics of the town. it has been reported that noise sensitivity—internal states that increase the chance of noise annoyance [88]—could alter the relationship between noise and health. Noise sensitivity has been linked to the beginning of depressed and psychological symptoms in adulthood. Higher morning saliva cortisol levels were linked to significant noise irritation and residing in high-noise locations in adolescents [89]. We did not have a way to gauge noise sensitivity or annoyance, so we could not assess its impact [90].

*Impact of Noise Pollution during Covid-19: A Case Study of Balasore, Odisha DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104607*


#### **Table 16.**

*Analysis of ANNOVA between demographic characteristics and relax.*


#### **Table 17.**

*Analysis of ANNOVA between annoyance and environmental factors.*

The current research clearly shows that persons in the study locations are sensitive to noise levels based on their age. Respondents are employed in a variety of sub-urban work sites. They are subjected to various types of noise. They are irritated by the noise levels in the vicinity as a result of this. It is impossible to say that the level of noise in their workplace is the sole source of their annoyance, although it could be one of them.

During unlock phases, different offices are also opened in a regular and controlled manner. The running of vehicles on the road also growing accordingly and that may

affect the public health in anyway. Different construction works also going on in many parts of the town and it may cause problem to the public of the town. Heavy vehicles carrying various raw materials are also moving on this road due to road building in various portions of the road. Vehicles are driven at all hours of the day and night. People of all ages are directly exposed to these levels of noise. This activity may exacerbate their sleeping problems.
