PREVALENCE OF HYPERTENSION IN WORKERS OF BELL METAL INDUSTRY
Noise is an occupational hazard and over and above its known auditory hazards, non auditory effects are alsofound to occur in the exposed subjects. Different studies have found an association between noise and blood pressure. As per the ndings of these studies prevalence of hypertension is more in the noise exposed group as compared to the non exposed group. Sarthebari, a place of Assam is famous for its bell metal industries. In these industries hammering of metal and various other activities done to manufacture utensils lead to production of noise with level much more than maximum permissible limit of noise at the industry level. Till now no research work has been done here to nd out the impact of noise in these employees. So present study was done to nd out the prevalence of hypertension in this noise exposed group. A total of 163 employees of Bell metal Industries of Sarthebari, Assam, in the age group of 18-62 were included in the study. After taking informed consent and proper history on food habit, work duration, health status; blood pressure, height, weight are measured and BMI was calculated. Moreover noise level of the site was measured by a decibel meter. Result was analysed by using Microsoft excel and SPSS software. In our study prevalence of hypertension of all 3 categories (isolated systolic, isolated diastolic, hypertension with both values increased) were found (p value<0.05) in the employees of bell metal industries of Sarthebari. But hypertension was not found to be associated with work duration (Pvalue .311579)