title: Hearing status among cabin crew in a Swedish commercial airline company.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study hearing loss in commercial airline cabin crew (CC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Totally 155 male and 781 female CC (n = 936) in a Swedish airline company underwent repeated audiometric tests during 1974-2005. The last test was used to study hearing loss. The mean test values at 3, 4, 6 kHz were used for the ear with worse hearing loss. Data were compared with a Swedish population (n = 603) who were not occupationally exposed to noise. Equivalent noise levels (Leq) were measured in different aircraft.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Leq was 78-84 dB (A), maximum A-weighted exposure was 114 dB. Median values for all ages were close to the reference group. No association was found between years of employment and hearing loss, when adjusting for age and gender by multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cabin crew are exposed to equivalent noise levels below the current Swedish occupational standard, and have normal age-matched hearing threshold levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Uppsala University, University Hospital, 751 85, Uppsala, Sweden. torsten.lindgren@medsci.uu.se
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lindgren
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wieslander
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nordquist
authors.forename: Bo-Göran
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Dammström
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Norbäck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000401:Aircraft; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009623:Noise, Occupational / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012016:Reference Values; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult