Environmental vibration and public health: A scoping review of health effects, exposure assessment, and preventive strategies

OBJECTIVE. To systematically map and synthesize current evidence on the effects of environmental vibration on populations, methods of exposure assessment, exposure–response relationships, regulatory approaches, and preventive strategies, and to identify the main gaps in the evidence base from a public health perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A scoping review was conducted in accordance with JBI methodology, with reporting guided by PRISMA-ScR and PRISMA-S. PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection were searched from database inception through 24 August 2026, supplemented by citation searching. Eligibility criteria were structured according to the PCC (Population–Concept–Context) framework. Twenty-four publications were included in the empirical synthesis and grouped into 13 research clusters; regulatory and methodological sources were analyzed separately. RESULTS. The most developed evidence base concerned railway vibration. The most consistent exposure–response relationships were observed for annoyance. Field and laboratory studies also support associations between nocturnal vibration and sleep disturbance, cortical arousals, awakenings, and acute changes in heart rate; in some experiments, vibration effects were observed independently of noise. Evidence for psychological and cognitive symptoms remains emerging and limited, and adequate prospective data on clinically manifest chronic diseases were not identified. Exposure assessment methods were heterogeneous and included RMS, VDV, vw,95, VdB, PPV, maximum frequency-weighted measures, and modelled exposure. Regulatory systems are primarily oriented toward comfort, annoyance, or structural safety rather than quantitative assessment of long-term health risk. CONCLUSIONS. Environmental vibration should be regarded as a physical stressor relevant to public health, with the strongest evidence for annoyance and sleep disturbance. Priorities include standardizing exposure assessment, jointly evaluating noise and vibration, investigating nocturnal exposure, vulnerable populations, and long-term clinical outcomes, and preventing exposure through spatial and transport planning.