title: The noise exposed factory workers: the prevalence of sensori-neural hearing loss and their use of personal hearing protection devices.
abstract: A total of 524 industrial workers were studied. They consisted of 442 noise exposed and 82 non-noise exposed workers. The purpose was to compare the prevalence of sensori-neural hearing loss among the noise exposed and the non-noise exposed workers, to study their knowledge on the hazard of noise to hearing and the workers' attitude towards the hearing protection devices. The prevalence of sensori-neural hearing loss was significantly higher among the noise exposed workers, i.e., 83% versus 31.7% (p < 0.01). However, the prevalence of hearing impairment was much lower for both groups, being 30.1% for the noise exposed and 3.7% for the non-noise exposed group. Although hearing protection devices were provided to 80.5% of the workers, only 5.1% were wearing them regularly. The possibility of developing hearing loss due to exposure to excessive noise was only known by 35.5% of the noise exposed workers. This awareness was found to have a positive correlation with the workers' compliance to the hearing protection devices. Our findings highlight the need for workers to be educated on the hazards of excessive noise exposure to hearing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, Kuala Lumpur.
authors.forename: S Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Maisarah
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Said
mesh_terms: D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004430:Ear Protective Devices; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015995:Prevalence