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The global prevalence of diabetes has been increasing. However, occupational environmental factors influencing it have been poorly studied. The effect of occupational noise exposure on diabetes is somewhat controversial. Thus, this study examines the relationship between occupational noise exposure (≥85 dBA) and diabetes incidence. Participants (n = 58,284) were recruited from a Common Data Model cohort of two hospitals from 2013 or 2014 and were annually followed up for three years. Drug history, clinical history of diabetes, and/or fasting glucose of 126 mg/dL or more were defined as new-onset diabetes. Multivariable time-dependent Cox proportional hazard models and Landmark analysis were implemented to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Pooled HRs and 95% CIs were calculated using the weight obtained through standard error. Of the participants, 4.65% developed diabetes during the follow-up. The final adjusted pooled HR of Cox models indicated a significant relationship between occupational noise exposure and increased risk of diabetes (Time-dependent Cox: HR 1.35 [95% CI 1.17–1.57]; Landmark: HR 1.22 [95% CI 1.10–1.35]). There is a significant relationship between occupational noise exposure and incidence of diabetes. Screening for diabetes, active management, and prevention may be necessary to improve the health of individuals exposed to occupational noise.

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 &lt, 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.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a curative treatment for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ineligible for surgery or liver transplantation. However, trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) might be an alternative when RFA is contraindicated due to structural problems. Here, we aimed to compare their long-term outcomes. Treatment-naive HCC patients fulfilling the Milan criteria who underwent RFA (n = 136) or TACE (n = 268) were enrolled. Complete response (CR) and 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were higher in the RFA group than in the TACE group (94.1% vs. 71.6% and 35.8% vs. 17.0%, respectively, both p &lt, 0.001), whereas 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were not significantly different (65.5% vs. 72.3%, respectively, p = 0.100). Multivariate analysis showed that RFA was associated with better RFS (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.628, p = 0.001) than TACE, but not with better OS (aHR 1.325, p = 0.151). The most common 1st-line treatment after recurrence were TACE (n = 53), followed by RFA (n = 21) among the RFA group and TACE (n = 150), followed by RFA (n = 44) among the TACE group. After propensity-score matching, similar results were reproduced. Hence, TACE could be an effective alternative to RFA in terms of OS rates. However, TACE should be confined only to RFA-difficult cases, given its lower CR and RFS rates and multi-disciplinary approaches are desirable in decision-making.

This study aimed to investigate the association of support from colleagues and supervisors at the workplace on depressive and anxiety symptoms in wage earners from Korea. The data used in this study were from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) conducted in 2017 and analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression model. Furthermore, we measured the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of depressive and anxiety symptoms by stratifying covariates. The ORs of depressive and anxiety symptoms for the “non-support” group were higher than for the “support group” in terms of support from both colleagues and supervisors. The results of the stratified analysis of covariates, male, young, highly-educated, full-time, and white-collar groups were associated with the lack of support. Support from colleagues and supervisors was significantly associated with the Korean wage worker’s mental health—depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Further longitudinal and clinical studies on the relationship between mental health and support at the workplace are required.