Associations Between Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and the Risk of High Fasting Blood Glucose Among the Air Force Population

Many epidemiological studies have demonstrated that noise exposure is associated with higher diabetes risk. Few studies have assessed the association between occupational noise exposure and high fasting blood glucose (FBG) directly. This study investigated the association between occupational noise exposure using noise-induced hearing loss values (HLVs) as a proxy and high FBG prevalence among ground staff at an air-force base. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 424 participants using questionnaires, health examinations, and pure tone audiometry tests. The high-frequency bilateral mean HLVs at 4 kHz was used as a biomarker of occupational noise exposure. Participants were divided into a high hearing loss (HL) group (n = 84; average HLVs ≥ 17.5 decibel [dB]) and a low HL group (n = 340; average HLVs < 17.5 dB [third quantile]). We used multivariate logistic regression to compare risk of high FBG between the two groups and the linear regression model to assess the association between HLVs and FBG. FBG prevalences were 19.0% and 7.4% for the high and low HL groups, respectively. The high HL group had a significantly higher risk of high FBG than the low HL group (odds ratio [OR] = 2.97; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.50–5.85; p = 0.002). Additionally, for every 5 dB increase in HLVs, the fasting FBG increased by 0.96 mg/dL (95% CI: 0.07–1.86; p = 0.034). Bilateral high hearing loss at 4 kHz, as a biomarker for occupational noise exposure, may be associated with high risk of FBG.