Exploring the effects of occupational noise on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases: A Mendelian randomization...

Existing observational studies have demonstrated a potential association between exposure to noisy workplaces and the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, current research is still inconclusive and inconsistent. Therefore, we attempted to delineate the causal correlation between noisy workplace exposure and both cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in the European population by using Mendelian randomization analysis. The necessary data on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as noisy workplaces, were all accessible from the genome-wide association studies database. The inverse variance weighted analysis served as the primary method, supplemented by a few sensitivity analysis methods to evaluate the robustness of our findings. Genetically inverse variance weighted methods revealed that suffering from occupational noise may be linked to a significantly increased incidence of hypertension (P = .005; odds ratio (OR): 1.049; 95% CI: 1.015-1.084), heart failure (P = .014; OR: 1.325; 95% CI: 1.058-1.660), and stroke (P = .019; OR: 1.010; 95% CI: 1.002-1.018). However, there was no causal relation between occupational noise and angina pectoris (P = .249; OR: 1.006; 95% CI: 0.996-1.017), acute myocardial infarction (P = .112; OR: 1.008; 95% CI: 0.998-1.018) as well as atrial fibrillation and flutter (P = .560; OR: 1.002; 95% CI: 0.995-1.009). In addition, sensitivity analysis techniques, including Cochran's Q test, leave-one-out analysis, as well as MR-Egger intercept, were employed to guarantee that our findings were more reliable and robust. The Mendelian randomization study suggested a genetically predicted causal involvement of working noise in the increased pathogenesis of hypertension, heart failure, and stroke, instead of acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, atrial fibrillation, and flutter.