Effectiveness of hearing protection apparatus in preventing noise induced vestibular loss

ABSTRACT

Hearing protection apparatus (HPAs) are frequently used to prevent the detrimental effect of noise on the hearing system. However, it is not known exactly whether wearing HPAs in workers protects the vestibular system. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of wearing HPAs in preventing vestibular loss caused by noise. Eighty-one workers exposed to chronic noise were divided into three groups according to their HPAs wearing status. Pure-tone audiometry test was used to evaluate the hearing. Caloric test and visual analogue scale were used to evaluate their vestibular systems. The pure-tone average of the workers who constantly wore HPAs was better than that of the other groups (p< 0.05). There was no difference between the groups in the vestibular tests (p > 0.05). This study demonstrated that HPAs do not protect the vestibular system but protect the hearing system in the inner ear from the harmful effects of noise

KEYWORDS:

• Earplugs
• earmuffs
• vestibular
• noise induced hearing loss
• caloric test

Acknowledgments

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Institution and Ethics approval and informed consent

An approval was received from local ethics committee Karabuk University (Project no: 2020-319). Written approval was received from all subjects involved in the study.

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Additional information

Funding

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).