https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-5090
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Abstract
Objective: In occupational hearing conservation programmes, age adjustments may be used to subtract expected age effects. Adjustments used in the U.S. came from a small dataset and overlooked important demographic factors, ages, and stimulus frequencies. The present study derived a set of population-based age adjustment tables and validated them using a database of exposed workers.
Design: Cross-sectional population-based study and retrospective longitudinal cohort study for validation.
Study sample: Data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (unweighted n = 9937) were used to produce these tables. Male firefighters and emergency medical service workers (76,195 audiograms) were used for validation.
Results: Cross-sectional trends implied less change with age than assumed in current U.S. regulations. Different trends were observed among people identifying with non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity. Four age adjustment tables (age range: 18–85) were developed (women or men; non-Hispanic Black or other race/ethnicity). Validation outcomes showed that the population-based tables matched median longitudinal changes in hearing sensitivity well.
Conclusions: These population-based tables provide a suitable replacement for those implemented in current U.S. regulations. These tables address a broader range of worker ages, account for differences in hearing sensitivity across race/ethnicity categories, and have been validated for men using longitudinal data.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude for the contributions of the (U.S.) National Hearing Conservation Association task force on Age Correction (Nancy Wojcik, Robert A. Dobie, Timothy L. Rink, Richard W. Danielson), and personnel from the World Trade Center Health Registry (Liza Friedman, Cheryl Stein) and the City of New York Fire Department (Jennifer Yip, Madeline Vossbrinck, Theresa Schwartz, Brandon Vaeth, Douglas Wilson).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s). They have not been formally disseminated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Fire Department of the City of New York.