Occupational Noise Induced Hearing Loss in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: India has over 50 million workers employed in industries with exposure to very high sound levels, predisposing them to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis by using the following criteria: (1) Observational or experimental studies conducted in India; (2) English language studies; (3) Published during January 2010-December 2019; (4) Primary outcome: proportion of participants detected with NIHL. We reviewed bibliographic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and DOAJ) and Google Scholar, and extracted the relevant data.

Results: A total of 160 documents were identified after removing duplicates, and 33 full texts were screened, of which 22 studies were included. The mean (SD) effective sample size of the studies was 107.1 (78.9). The pooled proportion of participants with NIHL irrespective of the category was 0.49 (95%CI: 0.22-0.76) and that of hearing loss was 0.53 (95%CI: 0.28- 0.78). Most studies reported that none of the workers, especially in the informal sectors, used auditory protection.

Conclusions: NIHL is a major neglected public health occupational health challenge in India linked with adverse social determinants of health. Sustained advocacy for implementation of legislative and behavior change communication for protecting the hearing of workers is warranted.