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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Audiol. 2017 Dec 7;57(SUP1):S3–S11. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2017.1410237

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics for program costs (in US dollars) and noise and hearing loss rates at metals manufacturing facilities in the US (N=14).

Overall Cost (USD) Per Person Cost (USD)
Cost Variables N plants reporting costs Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max
Total costs 14 191,417 99,542 67,016 396,638 308 80 203 438
Cost by wages vs. non-wages
    Wages 14 118,474 54,013 51,610 231,329 199 63 101 333
    Non-wages 14 72,943 58,513 15,406 196,400 108 57 56 253
Cost by program element1
        Program management 14 56,270 39,010 10,600 132,725 94 50 20 186
        Audiometry 14 48,670 36,969 9,876 158,205 76 35 40 143
        Workers Comp Claims 2 42,218 50,893 6,231 78,204 90 96 22 159
        HPDs 14 44,559 45,077 9,175 183,500 64 43 25 161
        Training 14 14,045 10,436 2,819 34,600 23 13 7 46
        Fit-testing 4 3,818 2,460 825 6,656 9 11 0.9 25
        Training + fit-testing 14 15,136 11,306 2,819 39,249 25 15 7 52
        Industrial hygiene 13 7,102 6,149 483 22,822 15 14 0.4 42
        Hearing loss investigation 13 7,814 10,174 701 39,620 11 10 0.9 41
        Equipment 14 2,936 3,474 300 12,900 5 5 0.6 17
        CAOHC2 certifications 12 1,207 1,113 100 3,731 3 5 0.2 17
Noise and Hearing Loss Variables (N=14) Mean SD Min Max
Hearing loss
    10 dB age-corrected STS3 5-year average (%) 3.1 1.4 1.4 6.6
    10 dB non-age-corrected STS3 5-year average (%) 7.6 2.5 3.2 11.2
    Average high-frequency hearing loss per year (dB) −0.1 0.2 -0.4 0.2
    Hearing impairment prevalence (%) 15.2 7.5 7.7 38.0
Noise
    Mean noise exposure measured by research team during visit (dBA4) 83.1 3.7 77.5 88.5
    Mean noise TWA exposure measured by facility over past 10 years (dBA) 82.6 2.9 78.4 87.5
    Mean trend in noise TWA exposure for facility over past 10 years (dBA) −0.9 1.5 −5.0 0.5
1

Corporate software descriptives not included due to standardized prices across facilities; however, corporate software costs are included in total costs and non-wage costs in statistics above, but were otherwise not used for predictive modelling.

2

Council for the Accreditation of Occupational Hearing Conservationists

3

Standard Threshold Shift, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, averaged over the five years preceding the site evaluation.

4

Measurements recorded during research team visit with run times between 6–10 hours in length were corrected to an 8-hour TWA. All other measurements (<20% of data) represent an LAVG value.