Does exposure to aircraft noise increase the risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular disease in older people (≥ 65 years) residing near airports? Selecting a random sample of approximately 650,000 Medicare claims, it was found that about 75,000 people had zip codes near airports and the remaining 575,000 did not. The proportions of hospital admissions related to cardiovascular diseases were computed for those with zip codes near airports and those who did not have zip codes near airports. A larger proportion of admissions for cardiovascular disease was found for older people living in zip codes near airports.

If averaged across all airports and using the 90% noise exposure metric, and if a zip code with 10 dB higher noise exposure had a 3.5% higher (95% confidence interval 0.2% to 7.0%) cardiovascular hospital admission rate, after controlling for covariates and despite limitations related to potential misclassification of exposure, a statistically significant association between exposure to aircraft noise and risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases among older people living near airports can be found.

Step-by-step explanation:

Because of the large sample sizes from each group, we can claim that living in a zip code near an airport is causing the increase in the proportion of admissions for cardiovascular disease.

Since this is an experiment, but not a randomized experiment, we can still conclude that living in a zip code near an airport is causing the increase in the proportions of admissions for cardiovascular disease.

The results are statistically significant and older people should not live near airports.

The results are of practical importance and this can be stated with 95% confidence.