Journal of Medicine and Health Research

Rapid urbanisation, traffic congestion, and mixed land-use in Yaba, Lagos have led to environmental noise levels exceeding World Health Organization guidelines, raising concerns about public health impacts. This paper assesses environmental noise pollution in the Yaba suburbs of Lagos State, Nigeria, and the effects on the mental health of its residents due to the rapid urbanisation, heavy traffic congestion and mixed land-use trends.  The level of environmental noise was measured with the help of a sound-level meter that had been calibrated to A-weighted equivalent continuous sound level (LAeq) at different times of the day, evening and night. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyse the data with statistical significance of p < 0.05. The findings indicated that the noise levels were consistently above the World Health Organisation limit, with LAeq values of 68-87 dB(A) across all periods. Over 55.2 per cent of the respondents displayed significant psychological distress, with significant proportions reporting moderate to very severe levels of depression and anxiety. Noise sensitivity was mainly moderate (80.3 per cent), and a statistically significant positive correlation was found between noise sensitivity and depression (r = 0.157, p < 0.05), anxiety (r = 0.236, p < 0.01) and psychological distress (r = 0.263, p < 0.01). Noise sensitivity was established to be a noteworthy independent predictor of depression (β = 0.178, p = 0.006), anxiety (β = 0.254, p < 0.000), and psychological distress (β = 0.288, p < 0.001) by multiple regression analysis. The findings highlight the urgent need for effective urban noise-control policies to protect mental health. More effective urban planning techniques, strong enforcement of the measures that aim at controlling noise pollution, and careful consideration for the psychological well-being of the population living in densely populated cities can be achieved through public health measures, which will result in reducing the aforementioned risk factor and protecting psychological well-being in the cities mentioned above.