Effect of wearing earphone to listen to music on high-frequency hearing loss in noise exposure workers / 中国职业医学

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of wearing earphone to listen to music on the high-frequency noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL) in noise-exposure workers. METHODS: A total of 651 male noise-exposure workers in an automobile manufacturer were selected as study subjects by using judgment sampling method. The level of noise exposure in the individuals and the pure tone hearing threshold were tested. According to the frequency of wearing earphone to listen to music after work, the subjects were divided into low-, medium-and high-frequency earphone-using groups, with 60, 436 and 155 workers in each group, respectively. The effects of wearing earphone to listen to music combined with occupational noise exposure on high-frequency NIHL were analyzed. RESULTS: The high-frequency NIHL detection rate of the study subjects was 31.3%(204/651). The detection rate of high-frequency NIHL in these three groups from low to high was low-, medium-and high-frequency earphone-using groups(P<0.01). The detection rate of high-frequency NIHL in the high-frequency earphone-using group was higher than that of the low-and medium-frequency earphone-using groups(43.2% vs 25.0%, 43.2% vs 28.0%, P<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that wearing earphones to listen to music was a risk factor for high-frequency NIHL in noise-exposure workers(P<0.01) after eliminating the influence of confounding factors such as age, length and level of noise-exposure, and wearing anti-noise ear plugs. The higher frequency of wearing earphone to listen to music, the higher risk of high-frequency NIHL. CONCLUSION: Wearing earphone to listen to music after work and occupational noise exposure had a synergistic effect on high-frequency NIHL in noise-exposure workers.