Evaluation of Air Force Hearing Data

Abstract

This program was intended to evaluate the effectiveness of the Air Force Hearing Conservation Program in light of several years experience. More than 82 000 audiometric tests on over 58 000 people were transferred to punched cards, processed by a large digital computer, and analyzed. In spite of a large amount of missing, illegible, or otherwise unusable data, it was possible to derive much useful information from the Hearing Data Repository. Benefits from the use of ear protection were not apparent, which leads one to question if people really use ear protection when they should or if they use it properly. The information in the repository on noise exposure, past and present, was not in a form permitting more meaningful interpretations. Further, it was found that the sample used had poorer hearing than a sample of the general population used as a reference, and one would want to derive an Air Force reference. [This program was sponsored by the School of Aerospace Medicine.]