Investigation of the effect of noise exposure in the workplace on the general health of steel industry workers

Improvements in knowledge as well as technology andindustrial workers’ exposure to adverse factors have caused more attention tobe paid to the workers’ occupational health. According to the report by W.H.O.,noise, as one of the most important physical factors of workplace, causes 4million dollars health damage every day. Noise can also reduce the workers’morale as well as motivation and, consequently, have negative effects on theirperformance. Considering the importance of occupational health, the presentstudy aimed to determine the effect of noise exposure on the steel industryworkers’ general health. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 50steel industry workers as the exposed group and 50 general practitioners as thereference group. Both study groups completed the demographic informationquestionnaire as well as GHQ-28. Then, the similarity of the demographiccharacteristics in both groups was determined using t-test and Chi-square.After scoring the questionnaires, the subjects’ final scores were computed andtheir general health statuses were determined. Besides, Mann-Whitney U test wasused in order to compare the two groups’ mean scores. The demographiccharacteristics were similar in both study groups. In addition, the two groups’mean scores were significantly lower than 23, as the cut-off point. The resultsalso revealed a significant difference between the two groups regarding abnormalsocial performance and depression; in a way that the workers’ mean score wassignificantly higher than that of the physicians (p<0.001 and p=0.018,respectively). This implies that in comparison to the physicians, the workershad a significantly lower health status. In addition, 36% of the workerssuffered from at least one psychological disorder. Overall, the steel industryworkers had a lower level of psychological health; in a way that they weresignificantly different from the reference group regarding the abnormal socialperformance and depression. Therefore, noise can be considered as a risk factorin the incidence of psychological disorders.