Relationship between self-reported hearing impairment and occupational exposure to aggressive agents in workers

Abstract

The goal of this study was to estimate the relationship between self-reported hearing impairment and occupational exposure to too aggressive agents in Mosul workers. This is an analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in out-patient of Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital in City of Mosul, Iraq. Data collection: data were categorized into two parts; part one included information related to workers' socio-demographic characteristics like (age, gender, duration of working, work Environment, and specific diseases like hypertension). Part two included a hearing assessment. A Self-reported questionnaire (HHIE) which was developed by Ventry and Weinstein and its scores were classified based on American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) draft guidelines, was used in the present study. A total of 500 workers participated in this study. The largest proportion of the sample was composed of men (63.7%). Regarding the occupational environment, 62 % of workers had between 0 and 4 years of work, followed by individuals with ten years or more (28%). In addition, there was a higher prevalence of closed work environments (50.5%). Among the most prevalent occupational exposures, 30.5% were exposed to noise, followed by chemical substances (17.3%) and industrial dust (8.2%). Difficulty hearing was reported by 8.2 % of participants.