Study of noise exposure and high blood pressure in shipyard workers

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Abstract
A cross-sectional and case-reference study of occupational noise exposure and blood pressure was conducted in a shipyard company. There were 158 male workers from the higher noise environment (>85 dBA) and 158 matched workers from a lower noise environment (<80 dBA). The workers in the higher noise environment had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p <.05) after adjusting for confounding factors. Comparison of regression revealed that there is no different increase in blood pressure with age in different environmental noise exposure. Based on 63 matched hypertensive-normotensive pairs from 2,730 shipyard workers, the relative risk of hypertension among workers exposed to an over-85-dBA acoustic environment, compared to those under 80 dBA, was 2.38. It is suggested that there may be a population of noise-exposed workers at increased risk of high blood pressure.