TABLE 7.
Prevalence of Audiometric Hearing Loss, Absent DPOAE Among Working Canadians, Aged 16 to 79: Occupational Noise Exposure Duration, Noise Sources, and Hearing Protection Usage
| Any Hearing Loss (n = 3,431) | Absent DPOAE (n = 3,068) | |||||||||||||
| 95% CI | 95% CI | |||||||||||||
| Characteristics | n | N | % | SE % | From | To | n | N | % | SE % | From | To | ||
| Currently working in a noisy environment | ||||||||||||||
| Yes | 140 | 1,132 | 33.2 | 3.6 | 25.9 | 41.5 | 113 | 972 | 31.3 | 4.4 | 22.5 | 41.6 | e | |
| No† | 1,131 | 7,819 | 35.7 | 1.1 | 33.3 | 38.2 | 815 | 5,302 | 28.1 | 1.5 | 25.0 | 31.5 | ||
| Ever worked in a noisy environment | ||||||||||||||
| Yes | 558 | 4,058 | 38.0 | 1.9 | 33.9 | 42.2 | 437 | 3,028 | 32.7 | 2.1 | 28.3 | 37.5 | * | |
| No† | 713 | 4,893 | 33.5 | 1.8 | 29.7 | 37.6 | 491 | 3,246 | 25.5 | 2.0 | 21.3 | 30.3 | ||
| Time worked in noisy environment | ||||||||||||||
| <12 months | 77 | 526 | 20.5 | 3.8 | 13.4 | 30.2 | ‡ e,E | 16.2 | 4.9 | 8.0 | 30.1 | ‡ f,E | ||
| 1 year to <5 years | 94 | 823 | 25.8 | 3.7 | 18.5 | 34.7 | ‡ e | 73 | 508 | 19.9 | 3.7 | 13.0 | 29.3 | ‡ E |
| 5 years to <10 years | 84 | 642 | 36.8 | 3.5 | 29.5 | 44.7 | ‡ e | 57 | 451 | 29.6 | 5.0 | 19.8 | 41.7 | ‡ e,E |
| 10 years or more† | 302 | 2,067 | 64.6 | 3.7 | 56.1 | 72.2 | 248 | 1,727 | 56.1 | 4.6 | 45.9 | 65.8 | ||
| Used hearing protection at work | ||||||||||||||
| Always/often† | 178 | 1,495 | 37.3 | 4.8 | 27.4 | 48.4 | e | 126 | 1,019 | 30.3 | 5.1 | 20.3 | 42.7 | e,E |
| Sometimes/rarely/never | 379 | 2,558 | 38.3 | 1.6 | 34.8 | 41.9 | 310 | 2,004 | 34.0 | 1.9 | 29.9 | 38.4 | ||
| Hearing protection required/used | ||||||||||||||
| Yes/yes | 122 | 1,048 | 35.6 | 5.0 | 25.6 | 47.1 | e | 95 | 782 | 29.3 | 6.5 | 17.3 | 45.2 | e,E |
| Yes/no† | 60 | 444 | 57.2 | 7.4 | 40.8 | 72.2 | e | 50.3 | 9.8 | 29.9 | 70.5 | f,E | ||
| No/yes | 51 | 417 | 41.3 | 9.5 | 22.9 | 62.5 | e,E | 28 | 224 | 33.4 | 8.2 | 18.2 | 53.1 | e,E |
| No/no | 305 | 2,060 | 36.1 | 1.9 | 32.1 | 40.3 | * | 257 | 1,651 | 32.4 | 2.8 | 26.6 | 38.9 | |
| Job category | ||||||||||||||
| White collar | 410 | 3,266 | 25.1 | 1.7 | 21.5 | 29.1 | * | 288 | 1,826 | 16.8 | 1.5 | 13.7 | 20.4 | ‡ |
| Blue collar† | 171 | 1,210 | 38.0 | 4.8 | 28.2 | 48.9 | e | 134 | 1,075 | 38.9 | 5.8 | 27.2 | 52.0 | E |
| Source of loud work noise | ||||||||||||||
| Machinery/transport | ||||||||||||||
| Yes | 463 | 3,491 | 40.2 | 2.3 | 35.4 | 45.3 | 355 | 2,535 | 34.1 | 2.8 | 28.1 | 40.6 | ||
| No† | 95 | 567 | 28.2 | 4.7 | 19.1 | 39.6 | e,E | 82 | 493 | 27.1 | 5.5 | 16.8 | 40.7 | e,E |
| Music/people | ||||||||||||||
| Yes | 71 | 444 | 22.5 | 4.6 | 14.0 | 34.1 | * e,E | 61 | 386 | 22.2 | 5.2 | 12.9 | 35.6 | e,E |
| No† | 487 | 3,614 | 41.4 | 2.4 | 36.2 | 46.9 | 376 | 2,642 | 35.2 | 2.7 | 29.6 | 41.2 | ||
| Other (munitions and/or other unspecified) | ||||||||||||||
| Yes | 80 | 432 | 37.9 | 5.7 | 26.3 | 51.0 | e | 60 | 311 | 30.7 | 5.6 | 19.9 | 44.1 | e,E |
| No† | 478 | 3,626 | 38.0 | 1.8 | 34.0 | 42.1 | 377 | 2,717 | 33.0 | 2.3 | 28.2 | 38.2 | ||
Any hearing loss: FFPTA and/or HFPTA and/or LFPTA.
e, E use with caution (coefficient of variation 16.6–33.3%), population size and %, respectively.
f, F too unreliable to be published (coefficient of variation greater than 33.3%), population size and %, respectively.
DPOAE, distortion product otoacoustic emissions; FFPTA, four-frequency pure tone average over frequencies (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz); HFPTA, high-frequency pure tone average over frequencies (3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz); LFPTA, low-frequency pure tone average over frequencies (0.5, 1, and 2 kHz).
*, ‡ significantly different from estimate for reference category (P < 0.05) and (P < 0.01), respectively.
†Reference category.