Liebenberg A, Nie VM, Brichta AM, Ahmadi S, James CL. Pre-employment hearing threshold levels of 59,601 Australian male coal miners compared to an otologically normal international male population (ISO7029:2019).
Int J Audiol 2022:1-9. [PMID:
35801823 DOI:
10.1080/14992027.2022.2088625]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
This study compared the pre-employment median hearing threshold level (HTL) distribution from a population of coal miners from New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to an otologically normal, age-matched population described by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) ISO 7029:2019, to determine any differences.
DESIGN
This was an observational, retrospective, repeated cross-sectional study.
STUDY SAMPLE
De-identified audiometric records of 59,601 male employees entering NSW coal mining in three representative five-year periods between 1991 and 2015 were utilised.
RESULTS
The median HTL deviation of the mining population was statistically significantly different (p < 0.05) from the ISO population, for almost all analyses. Overall, the mining population cohorts have higher (worse) median HTLs compared to the ISO population. The greatest difference occurs at 4 kHz in older age groups, likely indicating noise-induced hearing loss.
CONCLUSION
These findings indicate that some NSW coal mine workers commence their careers with evidence of pre-existing hearing loss (HL), in an industry with excessive noise exposures. These results provide Australian mining and other noisy industries with evidence to support a review of hearing conservation strategies to improve mitigation of hearing loss across the working lifespan.
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