Metabolic syndrome is one of the common causes of cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Although noise is an environmental factor to which people can be commonly exposed at work and in daily life, there are currently insufficient studies on the relationship between noise and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between noise and metabolic syndrome. Using a multivariate time-dependent Cox proportional hazard model, the impacts of occupational noise exposure on metabolic syndrome and its components were analyzed in a retrospective cohort of 60,727 participants from 2014 to 2017. The noise exposure group showed a significantly higher incidence of metabolic syndrome and was associated with elevated triglycerides, blood sugar, and blood pressure, but decreased high-density lipoprotein, among subgroups. There was no statistically significant association with abdominal obesity. Occupational noise exposure significantly contributed to the incidence of metabolic syndrome and changes in its components. This study could be a basis for establishing policies and guidelines to reduce noise exposure that might improve workers’ health.

The role of hazardous occupational noise exposure on the development of prediabetes is not well researched. We aimed to elucidate exposure to hazardous occupational noise as an independent risk factor for high fasting blood glucose (FBG). Participants exposed/non-exposed to occupational noise were recruited from the Common Data Model cohorts of 2013/2014 from two centers and were followed-up for 3 years. Multivariate time-dependent Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and were adjusted for various covariates. Pooled HRs were calculated. Among the 43,858 participants of this retrospective cohort study, 37.64% developed high FBG. The mean (standard deviation) age in the cohort was 40.91 (9.71) years. In the fully adjusted models, the HRs of high FBG in the two centers were 1.35 (95% CI: 1.24–1.48) and 1.22 (95% CI: 1.17–1.28), and the pooled HR was 1.28 (95% CI: 1.16–1.41). A Kaplan–Meier plot of high FBG incidence by occupational noise exposure showed significant results (p < 0.001). We found that occupational noise exposure is significantly associated with high FBG. Preventing exposure to hazardous noise in the work environment may help reduce the risk for prediabetes among workers.