Association between Occupational Noise and Vibration Exposure and Insomnia among Workers in Korea

Abstract

Background: The effect of noise and vibration exposure on disturbed sleep has been investigated in the past. However, this study was carried out to investigate the relationship between workplace noise and vibration exposure with insomnia amongst representative Korean workers, both simultaneously and separately. Methods: Our research analyzed an overall population of 30,837 workers aged 15 years or older using data derived from the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) conducted in 2017. Chi-squared tests and logistic regression were performed to investigate baseline characteristics and to quantify the association between workplace exposure to noise and vibration with insomnia. Relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), attributable proportion (AP), and synergy index (S) were calculated to measure interactions between simultaneous noise and vibration exposure with insomnia. Results: The prevalence of those who reported insomnia was 18.3% of the general population. Among men and women, insomnia in those who were exposed to noise only was 13.9% and 18.3%, respectively, and in those who were exposed to vibration only, it was 23.9% in males and 26.4% in females. Insomnia in those who were exposed to both noise and vibration simultaneously was 20.5% and 41.2% in men and women, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) of insomnia due to noise exposure was 1.10 and 1.07 in men and women, respectively. OR of vibration exposure was 1.84 in men and 1.58 in women. For noise plus vibration exposure OR was 1.83 in men and 3.14 in female workers, where the synergistic effect of noise and vibration exposure could be seen. The association between the varying degree of simultaneous noise plus vibration exposure with insomnia showed a dose–response relationship. The interaction measures showed a synergistic effect of simultaneous exposure in women but not in men. Conclusion: Our study revealed an association between occupational noise and vibration exposure and insomnia, both individually and simultaneously. Additional studies and research are required to further comprehend this relationship.

Neurobehavioral Alterations in Occupational Noise Exposure: A Systematic Review

“…Insomnia is another ailment reported by workers. Nari found in his study an increased risk of developing this discomfort in both genders, especially if exposed to vibrations at the same time (1.83/ CI 1.61-2.07 in men and 3.14/ CI 2.76-3.57 in women) [45]. Sleep disturbances appear to be triggered by annoyance, which in turn is related to noise exposure but they does not appear to be related to the age of workers [46].…”

Association between occupational noise and vibration and anxiety in the South Korean working population: a cross-sectional study

“…This is in line with the results of the current study. According to many prior studies, the synergistic effect of noise and vibration has been shown to impact on health outcomes, such as cognitive performance, hearing loss, and headache/eyestrain [ 25 ]. In animal studies, conducted by Hamernik, and in an experimental study conducted by Huang and Griffin [ 26 ], a prediction model was created for 24 healthy young people in order to examine the level of discomfort caused by exposure to continuous, whole-body vibration and noise.…”

Neurobehavioral Alterations in Occupational Noise Exposure: A Systematic Review

“…Insomnia is another ailment reported by workers. In his study, Nari found an increased risk of developing this discomfort in both genders, especially if exposed to vibrations at the same time (1.83/ CI 1.61-2.07 in men and 3.14/ CI 2.76-3.57 in women) [51]. Sleep disturbances appear to be triggered by annoyance, which in turn is related to noise exposure, but they do not appear to be related to the age of workers [52].…”