ABSTRACT
Background and objective: Hearing loss and tinnitus are two auditory effects of hearing system damage due to occupational noise exposure. These factors can have non-auditory effects by themselves and impact on brain cognitive performance. In our study, the effect of occupational noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus on cognition and auditory-verbal memory was investigated
Materials and methods: Our study was done on 42 male workers aged 40 to 56 years in three groups of workers with 1] hearing loss, 2] hearing loss and tinnitus and 3] normal hearing. Workers in two first groups had a long history of working in environments with excessive noise, and third group was matched control workers with normal hearing. Hearing impaired persons had symmetrical moderate falling sensory-neural hearing loss in the both ears. For all subjects, Mini-Mental State Examination and Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Tests were performed in identical conditions
Results: Normal hearing group had higher scores in all stages of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning test than two other groups and their means differences in three A1, Sum and Recognition stages were significant [p
Conclusion: Our study revealed effect of noise induced hearing loss and tinnitus due to prolonged exposure to noise over the limit on general cognition and auditory-verbal memory. Given the preventable nature of auditory and non-auditory effects of occupational noise, administration and control of hearing conservation programs and training of workers can be the suitable and proposed solution