Initial study of relationship between cumulative noise exposure and hearing loss in noised exposed workers of power plant

Objective To understand the incidence of hearing loss in a power plant workers exposed to noise and explore the relationship between hearing loss and cumulative noise exposure. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 356 employees exposed to noise for more than one year without any ear disorders. Their age, sex and hearing loss and noise level in the workplace were investigated. Results Incidence rate of hearing loss was 31.74% in the workers exposed to noise. There was no significant difference between different sex on incidence rate of hearing loss (χ 2=3.47, P0.05). But the incidence rate of hearing loss was increased with cumulative noise exposure, there was a typical dose-response relationship. It was obviously positive correlation ( r=0.991 6, P0.05). Conclusions Cumulative noise exposure could be used to reflect the level of the workers noise exposure roundly and is one of the best potential candidate models for assessing the dose-response relationship between hearing loss and industrial continuous noise exposure.