Chronic diseases and life events accounted for 2-18 % population attributable risks for adult hearing loss: UK Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007

Persistent Hearing Loss among World Trade Center Health Registry Residents, Passersby and Area Workers, 2006-2007

Background: Prior studies have found that rescue and recovery workers exposed to the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) disaster have evidence of increased persistent hearing and other ear-related problems. The potential association between WTC disaster exposures and post-9/11 persistent self-reported hearing problems or loss among non-rescue and recovery survivors has not been well studied. Methods: We used responses to the World Trade Center Health Registry (Registry) enrollment survey (2003–2004) and first follow-up survey (2006–2007) to model the association between exposure to the dust cloud and persistent hearing loss (n = 22,741). Results: The prevalence of post-9/11 persistent hearing loss among survivors was 2.2%. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of hearing loss for those who were in the dust cloud and unable to hear was 3.0 (95% CI: 2.2, 4.0). Survivors with persistent sinus problems, headaches, PTSD and chronic disease histories had an increased prevalence of reported hearing problems compared to those without symptoms or chronic problems. Conclusions: In a longitudinal study, we observed an association between WTC-related exposures and post-9/11 self-reported hearing loss among disaster survivors.

Persistent Post-9/11 Hearing Problems Among World Trade Center Health Registry Rescue and Recovery Workers, 2001 to 2007

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between 9/11-related exposures and self-reported hearing problems among 16,579 rescue/recovery workers in the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Registry.

METHODS

Using Registry Waves 1 (2003 to 2004) and 2 (2006 to 2007), we modeled the association between two metrics of 9/11-related exposures and hearing difficulties.

RESULTS

The prevalence of incident, persistent hearing problems was 4.4%. In a fully adjusted model, workers with higher environmental hazards scores were twice as likely (interquartile range OR 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8, 2.5) to report hearing problems. Based on the same fully adjusted model, workers unable to hear in the dust cloud were 2.3 (95% CI 1.8, 3.0) times more likely to report hearing problems as compared with workers not in the dust cloud.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed a consistent association between WTC-related exposures and self-reported hearing problems among rescue/recovery workers.