[High frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers in China: a Meta-analysis]

Objective: A Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the high frequency hearing loss detection rate, its area and time distributions in occupational noise exposed workers in China to provide evidence for the prevention and control of occupational noise-induced deafness. Methods: From February to April 2020, the number of hearing tests and the number of binaural high frequency average hearing threshold ≥40 dB of workers exposed to noise in key occupational disease monitoring and occupational health risk assessment project in China was collected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) , VIP database and PubMed database. The retrieval time was set from the establishment of the database to February 28, 2020. The R 3.6.2 software was used to calculate the pooled high frequency hearing loss detection rate. Results: A total of 28 studies, included 34 data and 1259571 occupational noise exposed workers, were enrolled. The articles covered 16 provinces in 2015-2018. The pooled high frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers was 9.45% (95%CI: 7.64%-11.64%) . The high frequency hearing loss detection rate (10.54%) was higher in 2018 than other years (2017: 10.17%, 2016: 9.21%, 2015: 7.88%) . The high frequency hearing loss detection rate (12.23%) was higher in central China than in eastern (10.21%) , western (7.91%) and north-eastern (5.21%) China. Conclusion: The overall high frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers is generally high in China. It is important to strengthen the hearing protection in occupational noise exposed workers to facilitate the occupational noise-induced deafness prevention and control in China.