Neurobehavioral Alterations in Occupational Noise Exposure: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development emphasizes the value to ensure health and well-being in different environments, including workplaces. Chronic exposure to noise can cause several extraordinary effects and involve all the systems of the human organism. In addition to cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune effects, the data in the literature show alterations in behavioral disturbances, memory capacity, and cognitive performance. Through this systematic review, the authors try to find out the main neurobehavioral alterations in the case of occupational exposure to noise. The literature review included articles published in the major databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Embase), using a combination of some relevant keywords. This online search yielded 4434 references; after selection, the authors analyzed 41 articles (4 narrative reviews and 37 original articles). From this analysis, it appears that the main symptoms are related to psychological distress, annoyance, sleep disturbances, and cognitive performance. Regarding tasks, the most frequent employments concern school staff, followed by employees from various industrial sectors and office workers. Although the causes are still widely debated, it is essential to protect these workers against chronic exposure to noise. In fact, in addition to a hearing loss, they can manifest many other related discomforts over time and compromise their full working capacity, as well as expose them to a greater risk of accidents or absences from work.

A Bayesian network model to predict the role of hospital noise, annoyance, and sensitivity in quality of patient care

“…There are robust reports that noise can impair cognitive performance and productivity, disturb communication, and compromise speech privacy [ 30 , 31 ]. Moreover, noise can influence the psychosocial aspect of health, annoyance, psychosocial stress, and behaviors [ 32 , 33 ]. Disturbed communication can be followed by misunderstanding of the patient and colleagues’ needs and in turn, reduce the quality of patient care.…”

A Bayesian network model to predict the role of hospital noise, annoyance, and sensitivity in quality of patient care

“…There are thorough reports that noise can impair cognitive performance and productivity, disturb communication, and compromise speech privacy [26,27]. Moreover, noise can in uence the psychosocial aspect of health, annoyance, psychosocial stress, and behaviors [28,29]. Disturbed communication can be followed by misunderstanding of the patient and colleagues' needs and in turn, reduce the quality of patient care.…”

The effect of moderate broadband noise on cognitive performance: a systematic review

“…Szalma and Hancock's meta-analysis, however, remained silent of some of the key moderators relating to moderate intensity noise such as individual difference, and in particular how its effect varies across cognitive processes such as attention, memory or high(er)-order cognition. More recent literature reviews have focused on other topics such as noise, health and wellbeing (e.g., Mucci et al 2021), the cognitive effect of chronic noise exposure (Thompson et al 2022), and psychophysiological indicators of noise stress (Grenzebach and Romanus 2022). These areas of research do not directly provide insight to the acute effect of noise on cognitive performance (Smith 1989b), the focus of the present research.…”