Study links workplace noise, psychological distress and menstrual abnormalities

Psychological distress accounted for more than half of the modeled association between occupational noise exposure and menstrual abnormalities in an observational study of 1,108 female workers in Chongqing, China. The researchers enrolled participants in 2024 and 2025 and combined machine learning with structural equation modeling to examine potential relationships among workplace noise, mental health and menstrual health. Among the participants, 334, or 30.1%, experienced menstrual abnormalities, according to the study.

The investigators first used univariate logistic regression to screen variables associated with the reported outcome. In that analysis, the duration of daily occupational noise exposure, noise sensitivity and noise annoyance were each positively associated with menstrual abnormalities at a significance level below 0.05. The team then used XGBoost, a machine-learning algorithm, to identify important predictors.

Its three highest-ranked predictors were use of hearing-protection devices, age and sleep duration. The study reported that hearing-protection use and sleep duration were negatively associated with menstrual abnormalities, while age was positively associated with the outcome. These statistical associations do not establish that hearing protection, age or sleep duration caused the reported differences.

To examine how the measured variables might be connected, the researchers built a structural equation model with daily occupational noise exposure as the independent variable and menstrual abnormalities as the dependent variable. Psychological distress was specified as a mediator, while hearing loss, sleep duration, noise sensitivity and noise annoyance were specified as potential moderators of the pathway between noise exposure and psychological distress. The model fit was described as good.

Its estimated total effect of noise exposure on menstrual abnormalities was statistically significant, with a standardized coefficient of 0.424 and a P value of 0.006. After psychological distress was included in the model, the direct effect of occupational noise exposure was no longer statistically significant. The indirect effect through psychological distress remained significant, with an estimated value of 0.243 and a P value of 0.029, and represented 57.3% of the total effect.

The pattern means that the model attributed the largest measured portion of the exposure-outcome association to a statistical pathway involving distress. It does not demonstrate a biological mechanism or prove that noise produced the distress or that distress caused menstrual abnormalities. The supplied findings also do not report confidence intervals, effect-size ranges or detailed estimates for every model variable.

Noise sensitivity, sleep duration and hearing loss significantly modified the pathway from occupational noise exposure to psychological distress. Noise annoyance was not reported as a significant moderator in the abstract, but its omission from that statement does not establish that it had no moderating role in the full model. Notably, the abstract reports associations rather than a tested intervention: it does not show that changing sleep duration, increasing hearing-protection use or reducing workplace noise would alter menstrual outcomes.

Subject of Research: Associations among occupational noise exposure, psychological distress and menstrual abnormalities in female workers

Article Title: Effects of occupational noise exposure on menstrual abnormalities among female workers: a path analysis based on XGBoost and structural equation modeling

Article References: Chen, F., Guo, X., Tao, Y., Zhang, L., Gong, D., Yu, C., Zhang, M., Yang, D., & Ye, M. (2026). Effects of occupational noise exposure on menstrual abnormalities among female workers: a path analysis based on XGBoost and structural equation modeling. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29560-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29560-x

Keywords: occupational noise, menstrual abnormalities, female workers, psychological distress, XGBoost, structural equation modeling, sleep duration, hearing protection, noise sensitivity, workplace health, Effects, occupational