Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to control noise and work-related hearing loss.

Abstract

The objective of this presentation is to discuss the literature and recommendations on the evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions to control noise and prevent hearing loss. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included a provision for federal funding to investigate how different interventions stack up against each other. The Act called on the Institute of Medicine to recommend a list of priority topics to be the initial focus of a new national investment in comparative effectiveness research. The need for research on hearing loss was placed in the highest priority group. Two recent Cochrane Reviews addressed the effects of interventions for the prevention of work-related hearing loss. Those concluded that some interventions improve the mean use of hearing protection devices compared to non-intervention; that there is low quality evidence that legislation can reduce noise levels in workplaces and contradictory evidence that prevention programs are effective in the long-term. There is consensus that most interventions focus on the use of hearing protection devices, and effectiveness depends on the quality of the implementation. Even though case studies show that substantial noise control can be achieved in the workplace, there is no evidence of this practice in the scientific literature.