Relationship between occupational noise exposure and the risk factors of cardiovascular disease in China: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: At present, occupational noise exposure has become one of the risk factors of occupational workers and attracted serious concerned of most of occupational disease researchers. To assess associations of occupational noise exposure and cardiovascular disease by meta-analysis. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Results from primary studies about occupational noise and cardiovascular disease (2000–2017) were retrieved from literatures, which were conducted in China only. Both random and fixed effect model were used to calculate pooled odds ratio (OR) and their corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). Review Manager and Stata software were used to perform data analysis. This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statements. RESULTS: After applying stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria, 4771 exposures and 3068 controls from 11 primary studies were used to analyze the relationship between occupational noise exposure and cardiovascular disease. The risk of developing high blood pressure for workers exposed to noise is 2.55 times higher than the controls (I(2) = 52%, 95% CI: 1.94–3.36), and electrocardiograph (ECG) abnormality is 2.27 times higher than the control groups (I(2) = 22%, 95% CI: 1.96–2.62). The bias analysis suggested that there is publication bias, but it didn’t affect the conclusions from trim test. CONCLUSION: The impact of high-intensity noise exposure on the worker's cardiovascular system is much greater than that of the unexposed control group, and the effect on hypertension of the exposed group is greater than that of the ECG.