Noise exposure as a risk factor for acoustic neuroma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether acoustic neuroma is associated with noise.

Design: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase and CINAHL databases were searched. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using quality-effect models.

Study sample: A total of eight studies with moderate or high quality involving 75,571 participants met the inclusion criteria.

Results: There was no significant relationship between overall noise exposure and acoustic neuroma (OR:1.02, 95% CI: 0.64–1.63). However, further subgroup analysis showed that leisure noise exposure (OR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.10–2.73), above five years’ exposure (OR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.14–2.85) and continuous exposure (OR:2.77, 95% CI: 1.70–4.49) were associated with an increased risk of acoustic neuroma.

Conclusions: These results suggest an elevated risk of acoustic neuroma among individuals who have been exposed to occupational noise when some subgroup analysis are conducted. Leisure noise in particular seems to play a significant role in the development of acoustic neuroma. However, due to the heterogeneity among the included studies, this conclusion should be interpreted with cautions, even though the continuous long-term consequences should not be ignored.

Keywords:

• Noise exposure
• risk
• acoustic neuroma
• vestibular Schwannoma
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. We are also very grateful to Dr. Christopher Wigham for proofreading this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by [National Natural Science Foundation of China #1] under Grant [Number: 81860871]; and [Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Department#2] under Grant [Number: QKHJC [2017]1113 and QKHPTRC [2018]5764-14).