Clausen Thomas, Christensen Karl Bang, Lund Thomas, Kristiansen Jesper
National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark.
Noise Health. 2009 Apr-Jun;11(43):93-7. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.50693.
Self-reported noise exposure is on the rise in Denmark. Little is known, however, about the social consequences, including sickness absence, of noise exposure. The aim of this paper was to investigate the association between self-reported noise exposure and long-term sickness absence. The association was investigated using the Cox proportional hazards model to analyze outcomes in Danish register data on the basis of Danish survey data (5357 employees aged 18-69 in 2000). The analyses showed that self-reported noise exposure was significantly associated with long-term sickness absence for both men and women when adjusting for demographic factors and health behavior. After further adjustment for physical workload at work the association between noise exposure and sickness absence disappeared for women, but not for men. Men that reported to be exposed to loud noise between one-quarter and three-quarters of their time at work had an increased risk of 43% (CI: 10-85%) for sickness absence of two weeks or longer compared to men that reported never to be exposed to loud noise. Men that reported to be little/rarely exposed to loud noise had an increased risk of 37% (CI: 7-76%). Men that reported to be exposed to loud noise more than three-quarters of their time at work did not have an increased risk of sickness absence. This latter result might be due a healthy worker effect and/or more frequent use of hearing protection in this group. Along with evidence from previous studies these results provide further support for an association between occupational noise exposure and sickness absence.
丹麦自我报告的噪声暴露情况呈上升趋势。然而，对于噪声暴露的社会后果，包括病假情况，人们了解甚少。本文旨在研究自我报告的噪声暴露与长期病假之间的关联。我们运用Cox比例风险模型，基于丹麦调查数据（2000年的5357名年龄在18 - 69岁的员工）分析丹麦登记数据中的结果，以此来研究这种关联。分析表明，在调整人口统计学因素和健康行为后，自我报告的噪声暴露与男性和女性的长期病假均显著相关。在进一步调整工作中的体力劳动负荷后，噪声暴露与病假之间的关联在女性中消失，但在男性中依然存在。与报告从未暴露于高强度噪声的男性相比，报告在工作时间的四分之一至四分之三之间暴露于高强度噪声的男性，病假两周及以上的风险增加了43%（置信区间：10 - 85%）。报告很少/极少暴露于高强度噪声的男性，病假风险增加了37%（置信区间：7 - 76%）。报告在工作时间超过四分之三暴露于高强度噪声的男性，病假风险并未增加。后一结果可能是由于健康工人效应和/或该组中更频繁地使用听力保护措施。连同先前研究的证据，这些结果进一步支持了职业噪声暴露与病假之间的关联。
