Current Data Collection, Instruments and Methods
National Surveillance of Noise Exposure
and Hearing Loss
This project will develop collection methods for hearing and noise
information to support the upcoming NIOSH National Hazards Survey
(NHS) and its sister, the NORA noise and hearing project. While
the present infrastructure available at NIOSH can support this work,
there has been no optimization for the efficient collection and
analysis of data, and, thus, the tools of Signalator and HearS f
2000 have not been fully used. In addition, since the NHS will add
interviews with workers, something which both the National Occupational
Hazard Survey of the 1970s and the National Occupational Exposure
Survey of the 1980s lacked, it is critical to ensure that the interview
information is collected in a manner consistent with HearS f 2000,
or that HearS f 2000 be adapted to manage the interview information.
Noise Sampling Strategies and Exposure-Response
Models
There is evidence that impulsive noise may have more of an effect
on hearing loss than continuous noise exposure at the same 8- hour
time-weighted average (TWA). This project will improve on existing
noise and hearing loss exposure-response analyses by determining
the most accurate way of estimating the time-weighted average TWA
and incorporating the combined effect of impulsive and continuous
noise. The study will collect more precise measures of impulsive
noise and examine different exposure metrics that may be applied
in models describing the risk of hearing loss due to impulsive noise.
Two main approaches to estimating the TWA noise exposure will be
compared: task-based assessment (noise levels associated with each
task in a given job, combined with time-at-task) and dosimetry (full-shift
personal monitoring). Additionally, repeated measures of noise over
several points in time on individuals and jobs will permit an evaluation
of how the precision of different exposure assessment approaches
affects the exposure-response analysis.
Cross-Sectional Survey: Noise Patterns/Sources
Exposure
To better understand the variability in noise measurements in the
mining industry, NIOSH is conducting a cross-sectional field study
of the noise exposure of mine workers. The study includes a variety
of mining methods, equipment, geographic locations and different
mine sizes. This research will establish representative noise exposure
profiles for the various mining occupations and will allow NIOSH
to provide the most appropriate recommendations for preventing hearing
loss.
Audiometric Assessment in NHANES IV
NIOSH is providing technical assistance in conjunction with support
from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communicative
Disorders (NIDCD) to the National Center for Health Statistics’
(NCHS) fourth National Hearing and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES IV). This survey will be the first to collect information
about the hearing of adolescents and adults including histories
and audiometric data. NIOSH will provide technical assistance for
the six years of the survey including the development of training
materials, training and oversight of the data collection. NIDCD
will provide the instrumentation for the study and provide a consultant
to work with NIOSH in technical assistance. At the completion of
the study, data will have been collected for 30,000 individuals,
forming the first complete database on the hearing of Americans
that is free of testing artifacts and errors. |
