The physical and psychological effects of occupational noise among seafarers: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

The aims were to highlight noise levels on board and the health effects of noise on seafarers. Data was collected from multiple databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Ebsco Host. Initially, the search resulted in a total of 197 articles, 16 were chosen. Several ships were found which most sailors had noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) (n = 6). The engine room has been defined as having the highest level of noise. In addition, noise exposure was associated with hearing loss, tinnitus, sleep disturbances, communication difficulties, poor concentration, dizziness, depression, anxiety, headache, fatigue, and stress. Noise exposure is not the only factor that causes health problems: the duration of exposure while working, years of career as a maritime worker, age, lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol consumption), and even hobbies related to loud sound (such as concert/disco attendance, listen to loud music, etc.) were associated with the adverse health effects experienced by seafarers.

KEYWORDS:

• Health effects
• noise exposure
• sailors

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the reviewers for their helpful, constructive comments, which were a great help in producing this improved version of the paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors have not reported any potential conflicts of interest.

Authors’ contributions

KF designed the study and wrote the paper, with critical revisions from JCCG, FFR interpreted and analysed the data, KF had also a role in data extraction, JCCG editing and supervised the manuscript. All authors have accepted accountability for the entire content of this paper and have given their consent to its submission.

Data availability statement

The datasets is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Ethical approval

The research conducted is unrelated to human or animal use.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.