Pre-employment hearing threshold levels of 59,601 Australian male coal miners compared to an otologically normal international male population (ISO7029:2019)

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Audiology

Volume

62

Issue

8

First Page

729

Last Page

737

PubMed ID

35801823

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

45209

Funders

University of Newcastle Australia

Comments

Liebenberg, A., Nie, V. M., Brichta, A. M., Ahmadi, S., & James, C. L. (2023). Pre-employment hearing threshold levels of 59,601 Australian male coal miners compared to an otologically normal international male population (ISO7029:2019). International Journal of Audiology, 62(8), 729-737. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2022.2088625

Abstract

Objective: This study compared the pre-employment median hearing threshold level (HTL) distribution from a population of coal miners from New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to an otologically normal, age-matched population described by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) ISO 7029:2019, to determine any differences. Design: This was an observational, retrospective, repeated cross-sectional study. Study sample: De-identified audiometric records of 59,601 male employees entering NSW coal mining in three representative five-year periods between 1991 and 2015 were utilised. Results: The median HTL deviation of the mining population was statistically significantly different (p < 0.05) from the ISO population, for almost all analyses. Overall, the mining population cohorts have higher (worse) median HTLs compared to the ISO population. The greatest difference occurs at 4 kHz in older age groups, likely indicating noise-induced hearing loss. Conclusion: These findings indicate that some NSW coal mine workers commence their careers with evidence of pre-existing hearing loss (HL), in an industry with excessive noise exposures. These results provide Australian mining and other noisy industries with evidence to support a review of hearing conservation strategies to improve mitigation of hearing loss across the working lifespan.

DOI

10.1080/14992027.2022.2088625

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