Efficacy of technology-based interventions to increase the use of hearing protections among adolescent farmworkers

Abstract

Objective: Adolescent farmworkers are exposed to loud noise during farm activities. We present a prospective study that evaluated the efficacy of low-cost, technology-based intervention approaches in high schools to enhance the use of hearing protection among adolescent farmworkers. Design: Six high schools in Iowa that agreed to participate in the study were divided into three equal groups through cluster-randomisation with each group receiving one of the three formats of hearing protection intervention: (a) classroom training, (b) classroom training coupled with smartphone app training and (c) computer training. Participants completed baseline (pre-training) and six-week post-intervention surveys for assessing hearing protection knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. Study Sample: Seventy participants from six schools were initially enrolled but 50 completed both pre- and post-intervention surveys. Results: In most cases, all three groups showed significant improvement in hearing protection knowledge, attitude and frequency of use from pre- to post-intervention. However, changes between groups were statistically non-significant. Conclusions: Although all three formats led to improvements on hearing protection knowledge, attitude and behaviour, the findings of the study, perhaps due to the small sample size, did not allow us to detect whether technology-based hearing protection interventions were more effective than the traditional face-to-face training for adolescent farmworkers.

Key Words:

• Noise-induced hearing loss
• hearing protection
• technology-based intervention
• adolescent farmworkers

Acknowledgements

We thank Andy Winborn, the Program Manager of the Rural Health and Safety Clinic of Greater Johnson County, Iowa City, Iowa, for his collaboration to schedule training and data collection activities in the high schools. We also thank Dr. T. Reneé Anthony, an Associate Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health and an Industrial Hygienist at the University of Iowa, who advised us on designing the protocol for testing the noise-measuring smartphone applications in the laboratory. Additionally, we thank Stephanie Dickinson, Manager of the Study Design and Data Analysis Consulting Center in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Indiana University-Bloomington, for her help in data analysis.

Declaration of interest

Dr. Diane Rohlman has a significant financial interest in Northwest Education Training and Assessment, LLC, a company that may have a commercial interest in the results of this research and technology. This potential conflict of interest was reviewed and a management plan approved by the University of Iowa Conflict of Interest in Research Committee was implemented. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

This work was supported by the Pilot Funding from the CDC-NIOSH Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health at the University of Iowa College of Public Health (grant number 5 U54 OH007548-11).

Supplementary material available online