A comparison of self-reported hearing and pure tone threshold average in the Iowa Farm Family Health and Hazard Survey

Details

• Personal Author:
  Choi S-W ; Flamme, Gregory A. ; Peek-Asa, Corinne ; Rautiainen RH ; Sprince NL ; Whitten PS ; Zwerling C
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: Self-reported hearing measures are useful for surveying hearing loss in a population because they are short, and easy to administer by either questionnaire or telephone. This study aims to assess the performance of several self-reported hearing measures to identify hearing loss in a group of Iowa farmers. METHODS: The study subjects were 98 male farmers who participated in the Iowa Farm Family Health and Hazard Survey. We tested three self-reported hearing measures; the hearing screening questions, the Rating Scale for Each Ear (RSEE), and the Health, Education and Welfare-Expanded Hearing Ability Scale (HEW-EHAS), which were originally developed and implemented in the National Health Interview Survey. The sensitivity and specificity of the self-reported hearing measures were assessed by comparing them with pure tone threshold averages. These sensitivity and specificity measures were compared between younger and older age groups. RESULTS: The sensitivities of the screening questions, RSEE, and HEW-EHAS were 73.0%, 66.7%, and 53.3%, respectively. The specificities of the self-reported hearing measures were similar, which ranged from 81.4% to 84.8%. The sensitivities of the self-reported hearing measures were higher in the younger age group while the specificities were higher in the older age group. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support the use of simple screening questions in identifying hearing loss among farmers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Agriculture Epidemiology Farmers Hearing Hearing Loss Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Men Noise Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Age-factors Agricultural-workers Auditory-feedback Auditory-system Author Keywords: Self-reported Hearing Etiology Exposure-levels Exposure-limits Health-surveys Hearing-disorders Hearing-impairment Hearing-level Hearing-loss Humans Pure Tone Threshold Average Questionnaires Sensitivity Specificity Statistical-analysis

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• ISSN:
  1059-924X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  31-39
• Volume:
  10
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040666
• Citation:
  J Agromedicine 2005 Jul; 10(3):31-39
• Contact Point Address:
  Corinne Peek-Asa, PhD, MPH, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, 100 Oakdale Boulevard #124 IREH, Iowa City, IA 52242-5000
• Email:
  corinne-peck-asa@uiowa.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Agromedicine
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a506ee7d075198e2a289031a9225ed5ad7298533095d9b228bfad3a1b7a49fccfa67795e3734ee77831383c3fa70ff3cf23a72b87f9c649516a053c484022f7f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193455/cdc_193455_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 631.19 KB ]