Associations between occupational noise exposure and fasting glucose - A case study of the power tool factory

• Main Authors: Kuei-Fan Lin, 林奎汎
• Other Authors: Ta-Yuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/wpsdh4

碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 職業安全與衛生學系碩士在職專班 === 102 === Objective： This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the associations between noise intensity and frequency components with the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose and fasting glucose levels among machinery and equipment manufacturing industry workers. Methods： We recruited a machinery and equipment manufacturing company with 165 employees as the study population in Central Taiwan. We performed the walk-through survey to identify the high-noise-exposure areas with noise levels above 80 A-weighted decibel (dBA) for conducting time-weighted-average sound levels and frequency analyses. We classified subjects into different similar exposure groups (SEGs) based on the measurements of environmental noise . Multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to investigate the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose between different exposure groups. In addition, multivariate linear regression models were used to analyze the association between 1-dBA exposure and fasting glucose levels. Results： The high- (87.1 ± 3.9 dBA) and low-exposure groups (71.6 ± 3.6 dBA) had a significant difference in the noise levels (p<0.0001). The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose among the high- and low-exposure groups were 26.6% and 20.93%, respectively. Workers exposed to noise levels≧80 dBA had a higher risk (odds ratio [OR]=1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.67-2.81) compared with low-exposure group after controlling for potential confounders, but no significant difference was observed (p=0.394) .Workers exposed to 31.5 Hz≧29 dB and 250 Hz≧45 dB exceed 14 years of employment duration had a significantly higher risk (OR=52.7, 95% CI=1.12->999.9) of impaired fasting glucose compared with the low- exposure group. Conclusion： This study showed that workers exposed to 31.5 Hz≧29 dB and 250 Hz≧45 dB exceed 14 years of employment duration might be associated with the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose.