Interaction of occupational and non-occupational noise exposure leads to high frequency hearing loss
Objective To explore the impact of the interaction between occupational and non-occupational noise exposure on the risk of high-frequency hearing loss(HFHL)in noise-exposed workers.Methods A total of 602 male workers with normal hearing,engaged in an automobile manufacturing company between 2016 and 2018,were selected as the study subjects using the retrospective cohort study method.Pure-tone audiometry and questionnaire surveys were conducted on the workers.The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the interaction between occupational and non-occupational noise exposure and the risk of HFHL in these workers.Results The prevalence of HFHL of the workers was 34.1%in 2020,without any cases of speech frequency hearing loss.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis result showed that the risk of HFHL increased in workers with excessive national occupational noise exposure intensity,self-reported noisy living environments,and both excessive national occupational noise exposure intensity and self-reported noisy living environments(all P<0.01).The results of the Cox proportional hazards model showed that the combined effect of excessive national occupational noise exposure intensity and self-reported noisy living environments[relative risk(RR)=2.40,P<0.01]was higher than the individual effects of excessive national occupational noise exposure intensity(RR=2.09,P<0.01)and self-reported noisy living environments(RR=2.39,P<0.01).There was an antagonistic effect between excessive national occupational noise exposure intensity and self-reported noisy living environments(interaction index<1.00).Conclusion Both occupational and non-occupational noise exposure can increase the risk of HFHL in noise-exposed workers,and there is an interaction between them.