Hideki Hashimoto1, Kyoko Nomura, Eiji Yano. 1. Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Kaga 2-11-1, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan. hhashimo@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Subjective hearing difficulties are often used as a surrogate to audiometry in health check-up, although its effectiveness has not been tested in healthy workers. We conducted a study to test the usefulness of self-reported hearing difficulties for screening hearing impairment among healthy workers by comparing the results with those of audiometry. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a cross-sectional observational study. A sample of 12,495 healthy workers in Japan without excess noise exposure was recruited at regular health check-up. Audiometry was conducted after self-administered questionnaire asking symptoms including hearing difficulties. The results were compared to those of audiometry as the gold standard. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of hearing impairment was 4.6% among the population. Subjective hearing difficulties showed 0.21 of sensitivity, 0.95 of specificity, and 0.93 of accordance against audiometry. When limited to those with more than two psychosomatic symptoms, however, the corresponding numbers were 0.43, 0.85, and 0.83. CONCLUSION: The assessment of subjective hearing difficulty may not be able to replace audiometry, but may be useful to detect psychosocial problems of hearing in the workplace.
OBJECTIVE: Subjective hearing difficulties are often used as a surrogate to audiometry in health check-up, although its effectiveness has not been tested in healthy workers. We conducted a study to test the usefulness of self-reported hearing difficulties for screening hearing impairment among healthy workers by comparing the results with those of audiometry. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a cross-sectional observational study. A sample of 12,495 healthy workers in Japan without excess noise exposure was recruited at regular health check-up. Audiometry was conducted after self-administered questionnaire asking symptoms including hearing difficulties. The results were compared to those of audiometry as the gold standard. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of hearing impairment was 4.6% among the population. Subjective hearing difficulties showed 0.21 of sensitivity, 0.95 of specificity, and 0.93 of accordance against audiometry. When limited to those with more than two psychosomatic symptoms, however, the corresponding numbers were 0.43, 0.85, and 0.83. CONCLUSION: The assessment of subjective hearing difficulty may not be able to replace audiometry, but may be useful to detect psychosocial problems of hearing in the workplace.
Authors: N Chau; E Bourgkard; A Bhattacherjee; J F Ravaud; M Choquet; J M Mur Journal: Int Arch Occup Environ Health Date: 2007-08-16 Impact factor: 3.015
Authors: Pernilla Videhult Pierre; Anders Fridberger; Anders Wikman; Kristina Alexanderson Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2012-10-15 Impact factor: 3.295
Authors: Sandor Klis; Ymkje Stienstra; Richard O Phillips; Kabiru Mohammed Abass; Wilson Tuah; Tjip S van der Werf Journal: PLoS Negl Trop Dis Date: 2014-03-13