Current aspects of occupational hearing loss in agricultural workers

Abstract

Introduction. Agricultural workers belong to the cohort of increased risk of developing occupational hearing loss (OHL). When studying occupational sensorineural hearing loss (SHL), researchers usually limit themselves to stating its share in the structure of occupational diseases without a comprehensive analysis of the initiating occupational factors and the relationship between the development of the disease with the age of employees and occupational experience. Materials and methods. The study is based on data on working conditions and occupational diseases by type of economic activity “Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing and fish farming” in the Saratov region from 2000 to 2019. The assessment of the factors of working conditions was carried out using the methods of the current hygienic classification. Generally accepted indicators were used to characterize occupational diseases. Linear regression analysis and polynomial equations were used to describe trend models of the prevalence of occupational diseases. Calculations and data analysis was carried out based on Microsoft Excel and Statistica application software packages. Results. Occupational hearing loss occupied the fourth rank after dorsopathies, vibration disease and chronic brucellosis in the nosological structure of accumulated occupational diseases. The level of primary incidence of SHL was in the range of 0.11 - 0.71 per 10000 workers. All cases of OHL were detected in agricultural machine operators whose harmful working conditions were characterized by a synergy of industrial noise (classes 3.1-3.3) and general vibration (classes 2-3.2). For the most part, SHL was diagnosed in workers aged 50 to 60 years with a work experience of 8 to 42 years in the profession and acted as the second or third concomitant occupational disease associated with dorsopathy, vibration disease or bronchopulmonary diseases. Conclusion. The absence of a statistically significant decrease in the level of PPP among agricultural workers during the observation period indicates the insufficient effectiveness of preventive measures to minimise occupational noise exposure.