UNASSIGNED: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) is a multi-factorial disorder in most occupational setting and it has increased significantly in recent years.
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between physical, cognitive, and environmental factors of ergonomics with the prevalence of WRMSDs in a car-parts manufacturing industry.
UNASSIGNED: This cross-sectional study was performed among 220 workers in a milling unit of a car parts manufacturing company in 2021-2022. The prevalence of WRMSDs was assessed using the Extended Version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Noise exposure was evaluated using dosimetry method. Mental and physical workload were evaluated by the NASA-TLX and key index methods (KIM-MHO and KIM-LHC), respectively. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25.0.
UNASSIGNED: The subjects\' mean age and work experience were 36.3±6.5 and 8.35±6.41 years, respectively. Eighty-five percent of the subjects reported WRMSDs in at least one area of the body. The results of mental workload assessment revealed a high workload mean range (73.23±14.89) in all of the subjects. Mean score of KIM-LHC and KIM-MHO were 738.18±336.42 and 201.86±36.41, respectively with odds ratio of 1.32 for KIM-LHC in creating the WRMSDs. There was a significant relationship between the noise exposure, mental and physical workload and the prevalence of WRMSDs (p-value <  0.05).
UNASSIGNED: The results of the present study revealed that environmental, physical and cognitive factors can simultaneously be effective in the prevalence of WRMSDs. Therefore, performing effective control measures requires comprehensive attention to physical, environmental, and cognitive ergonomics in the algorithm of ergonomics management in the workplace.

UNASSIGNED: The study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors associated with unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) related to environmental noise exposure before its onset.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 50 unilateral SSNHL patients exposed to environmental noise before onset (case group) and 924 unilateral SSNHL patients without any exposure to obvious inducing factors before onset (control group) were enrolled between January 2018 and October 2022. We retrospectively analyzed differences between both groups using the chi-square test, Fisher\'s exact tests, independent t-tests, and Mann-Whitney U-tests as appropriate before and after propensity score matching (PSM) based on sex, age, and initial pure-tone average (PTA). Prognostic factors for the case group were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic analyses between the effective and ineffective groups.
UNASSIGNED: Before PSM, significant differences were noted in age, sex, time to treatment, the proportion of combined diabetes mellitus, initial PTA, hearing gain, the incidence of vertigo or aural fulness, the rate of vestibular dysfunction or inner ear MRI abnormalities, the effective rate, the glucose and homocysteine levels, and the proportion of audiogram curve types (P < 0.05) between both groups. After PSM, compared to the control group, a longer time to treatment (Z= -3.02, P < 0.05), higher final PTA (Z= -2.39, P < 0.05), lower hearing gain (Z= -3.46, P < 0.05), lower rate of vestibular dysfunction (χ2 = 55.1, P < 0.001), and lower effective rate (χ2 = 4.87, P < 0.05) were observed in the case group. There was a significant difference between the audiogram curve types in both groups (χ2 = 14.9, P < 0.05). Time to treatment (95% confidence interval: 0.692-0.965, P < 0.05) and final PTA (95% confidence interval: 0.921-0.998, P < 0.05) were associated with the clinical outcomes for the case group.
UNASSIGNED: Unilateral SSNHL patients exposed to environmental noise triggers before onset showed a poorer effective rate and a lower rate of vestibular dysfunction than those who were not. The time to treatment and final PTA were associated with the prognosis of these patients.

Road traffic noise is a growing challenge for human health in the last decades. World Health Organization (WHO) summarized the scientific evidence on side effects of noise on public health and wellbeing since 1999 in its publication \"Guidelines for community noise\". The WHO\'s documentation was completed in 2009 with the Night Noise Guidelines for Europe and in 2011 with the Burden of disease from environmental noise highlighting the negative effects of environmental noise on health. In this paper, we studied and presented the overall noise levels and the exposure of the population in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The estimation of the exposure to road traffic noise was based on the census data for a 15-year time period (e.g. 2000-2015). The quantification of the environmental burden of cardiovascular diseases, due to urban traffic noise, is calculated in terms of DALYs. The calculation is based on the morbidity and mortality data from the hypertensive, ischemic heart, and cerebrovascular diseases of the total population. Our analysis proved that the road traffic noise in Thessaloniki causes almost 2000 DALYs lost in the total population each year. Also, the exposure to road traffic noise was estimated by three measuring points, two of them located in the urban Thessaloniki (a high traffic highway and a residential area) and the third one situated in one urban background area in the urban outskirts of Thessaloniki. The noise levels were measured for a 24-h period during a 3 year time period for every measuring point. The imposed WHO noise levels were exceeded in both high traffic highway and residential areas for almost the whole time of the measurement period.

Traditional hearing conservation programs are based on the premise that noise dose, as measured by the time-weighted average noise level, is the primary risk factor associated with occupational hearing loss and that permanent threshold shifts are the most relevant outcome measures for determining when a noise-related hearing loss has occurred. However, recent studies in animal models have suggested that significant neurological damage to the hearing system can occur from noise exposures even when they are not severe enough to result in permanent threshold shifts. This has led to a number of studies attempting to relate subjective measures of noise exposure to subjective measures of hearing difficulty and suprathreshold measures of hearing performance (e.g., speech-in-noise tests). In this study, 3,330 U.S. service members volunteered to complete a survey on noise exposure, subjective hearing complaints, and tinnitus in conjunction with their annual hearing tests. Two questions were also included about the frequency and duration of temporary hearing losses that may have been experienced by the service member. The results show that subjective reports of temporary threshold shifts were substantially more predictive of tinnitus and other hearing complaints than more traditional questions based on the frequency of noise exposure.

The primary objective of this study was to develop an evaluation method for assessing an urban traffic noise-exposed population and apply it in the main urban area of Guangzhou. The method based on points of interest (POIs) and noise map is realized in several steps. First, after regionalizing based on road networks and executing a cluster analysis for regions according to the properties of POIs, the environmental noise functional regions (NFRs) of the urban area are presented. Then, surrounding POIs are used to infer the type of buildings, and according to the attraction of different building types and the whole population of the region, the population distribution at the building level is calculated. Finally, with the help of a noise map, an evaluation method for assessing an urban traffic noise-exposed population is proposed. The method is applied in the main urban area of Guangzhou, and the results reveal the followings. 1) At daytime and nighttime, 23.63% and 30.53% of the population, respectively, experience noise levels that exceed the noise standards. The per capita noise exposure value at daytime and nighttime is 0.9 dB and 2.0 dB, respectively. 2) The percentages of the exposed population of Yuexiu District were 28.89% at daytime and 35.65% at nighttime, which are the largest, followed by the exposed population percentages of Liwan, Haizhu, and Tianhe Districts. 3) From the view of different classes of NFRs, the percentages of the exposed population of Class 1 and Class 4 are larger than the percentages of the exposed population from the other classes, especially at nighttime (48.24% of Class 1 and 40.79% of Class 4). 4) Although there are masses of people affected by traffic noise, a large percentage of them (85%) experience not more than 5 dB of traffic noise superscale.

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is an important occupational disease worldwide resulting from interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The purpose of this study was to examine whether genetic variations in POU4F3 and GRHL2 may influence susceptibility to NIHL in the Chinese population. A matched case-control study was carried out among 293 hearing loss individuals and 293 normal hearing workers drawn from a population of 3790 noise-exposed workers. Ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in POU4F3 and GRHL2 were selected and genotyped. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the main effects of SNPs and the interactions between noise exposure and SNPs. Moreover, the interactions between predictor haplotypes and noise exposure were also analyzed. Analysis revealed that the CC genotype of rs1981361 in the GRHL2 gene was associated with a higher risk of NIHL (adjusted OR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.08-2.32, p = 0.018). Additionally, the GG genotype of rs3735715 in the GRHL2 gene was also a risk genotype (adjusted OR = 1.48; 95% CI: 1.01-2.19, p = 0.046). Significant interactions were found between rs3735715, rs1981361 (GRHL2), rs1368402 as well as rs891969 (POU4F3) and noise exposure in the high-level exposure groups. Furthermore, the protective haplotype CA in the POU4F3 gene and the risk haplotype GCCG in the GRHL2 gene were identified combined with noise exposure. These results indicated that GRHL2 might be an NIHL susceptibility gene, but the effect of POU4F3 on NIHL could only be detected when taking noise exposure into account, and their effects were enhanced by higher levels of noise exposure. However, the differences were not significant after the Bonferroni correction was applied. These results should be seen as suggestive.