Noise sensitivity: from systematic review to improving its measurement

Noise sensitivity is known to be the most influential non-acoustic factor affecting noise annoyance. While there is general consensus within the international research community as to how noise annoyance should be measured, it is not true for noise sensitivity. Either single-item rating scales are used or full-fledged questionnaires. Few of these instruments have been validated across different languages, and some of them have never been psychometrically evaluated. Even though noise sensitivity has been studied for many decades, there is no systematic review of what noise sensitivity is. The present research program started out by conducting a systematic review of the instruments available to measure noise sensitivity. Next, an online survey will be carried out to evaluate and compare existing noise-sensitivity questionnaires on a large sample while considering versions in different languages. Finally, on the basis of both the systematic review and the questionnaire evaluation, a resulting measure of noise sensitivity will be assessed in the laboratory by relating it to both noise annoyance and physiological measurements. The relevance of the proposed work is thus to designate a reliable, yet economic method to measure noise sensitivity in future surveys. [Research funded by Fondation pour l'Audition (grant FPA RD-2022-6)]