Objective To identify cardiovascular disease related indices in workers with occupational noise induced binaural high frequency hearing loss.
Methods After excluding those with history of cardiovascular, liver, kidney diseases, family history of hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart diseases, and history of alcohol abuse, 126 workers in a thermal power plant were enrolled in the study. The subjects were divided into control group ≤ 25 dB (hearing loss range, HL), 64 cases, mild injury group 26~40 dB (HL), 39 cases, and severe injury group ≥ 41 dB (HL), 23 cases according to binaural high frequency hearing threshold test. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), hypertension prevalence, and ST-segment depression positive rate were analyzed.
Results There were increasing tendencies in TC, FPG, hypertension prevalence, and ST-segment depress positive rate along with the increase of binaural high frequency hearing threshold in each group (P < 0.05). The TG levels in the mild injury group and the severe injury group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). No significant difference in HDL-C and LDL-C was found among the groups (P > 0.05).
Conclusion The results suggest that binaural high frequency hearing loss may interact with some cardiovascular disease related indices. Protection against hearing loss might be a part of cardiovascular diseases control program.
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