Hearing Impairment in U.S. Adults Is Associated with Loud and Very Loud Occupational Noise, Firearms Use, and Other Noise Exposures: The 2014 Hearing Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dobie R ; Flamme G ; Hoffman H ; Losonczy K ; Themann, Christa L.
• Description:
  Background: Exposure to high-level sounds and noise is the major preventable cause of hearing impairment (HI) among adults in the United States and developed countries. Objective: To estimate associations between HI and risk factors, including occupational and other noise exposures, based on a recent nationally-representative sample of the adult population. Methods: The 2014 NHIS Hearing Supplement was sponsored by NIDCD/NIH and implemented by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC to collect updated national estimates on hearing health, including noise exposure and hearing ability, to track U.S. Healthy People 2020 goals. NCHS contracted with the U.S. Census Bureau for field staff to administer the hearing questions during personal interviews of the adult (aged 18 or more years) sample, n=36,697. Respondents were asked to describe their hearing as either "excellent", "good", "a little trouble", "moderate trouble hearing", "a lot of trouble", or "deaf". If hearing was worse in one ear, this question was repeated for the poorer-hearing ear; the Gallaudet hearing scale was also completed. Occupational noise was categorized by number of years of exposure to "very loud" (must shout to be understood by someone three feet away) or only "loud" (must speak with raised voice to be understood) sounds or noise. Firearms noise was categorized by the lifetime number of rounds fired. Frequency of hearing protection (ear plugs or ear muffs) use was also queried. Multivariable regression models in SAS and SUDAAN were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), while adjusting for national sampling weights. Results: The prevalence of "very loud" occupational noise exposure was 20.4% (men: 32.3%; women: 9.4%) and of "loud" (but not "very loud") occupational noise was 3.9% (men: 5.2%; women: 2.3%). In multivariable models predicting "any hearing loss", we adjusted for race/ethnicity, education, income, smoking, and chronic illness (asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke) and found that age was the major risk factor, as expected. Nevertheless, when compared to respondents who were not exposed to high noise levels, "loud" occupational noise (OR=1.6, CI: 1.3-2.0), <5 years (OR=1.9, CI: 1.6-2.3) and >5 years "very loud" occupational noise (OR=2.9, CI: 2.5-3.2), firearms use (OR=1.3, CI: 1.2-1.4), and recurring "very loud" noise exposures outside of work (OR=1.7, CI: 1.5-1.9), were each independently associated with HI. Conclusion: Since younger adults often have greater exposure to injurious noise, effective interventions aimed at them could substantially reduce the sex- and age-specific burden of HI. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Epidemiology Hearing Loss Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Sex Characteristics

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• Keywords:
  Age Factors Firearms Hearing Impairment Hearing Loss Noise Exposure Occupational Exposure Risk Factors Sex Factors
• ISSN:
  0742-3152
• Publisher:
  Association for Research in Otolaryngology
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Maryland ; Michigan ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  41
• Volume:
  39
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060909
• Citation:
  Abstr Midwinter Res Meet Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2016 Feb; 39:41
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Abstracts of the 39th Midwinter Research Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Febuary 20-24, 2016, San Diego, California
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:72624064ecb12e2316c69c835223bf9f01957698bdcf85b61bee4fb89e35320a8f6bed6623d1f149921a1dabc4888aef957e3f5cbc011f0f227170398dd34977
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224674/cdc_224674_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 828.54 KB ]