Correlação entre o perfil audiométrico, idade e o tempo de atividade em motoristas de ônibus

Abstract

OBJETIVO: relacionar o perfil audiométrico dos motoristas de ônibus com as variáveis idade e tempo de atividade. MÉTODO: foi realizado um estudo de Coorte retrospectivo, individual, comparativo, utilizando dados da avaliação audiológica de motoristas de ônibus de Porto Alegre e região metropolitana. RESULTADOS: foram avaliados 1113 motoristas com média de 40,33 anos de idade, e média de tempo de serviço de 4,16 anos. Observou-se perda auditiva neurossensorial bilateral na faixa de 3 a 6KHz, com tendência de maior alteração dos limiares auditivos para a orelha esquerda na faixa de 0,5 a 2 KHz. Os trabalhadores com mais idade e tempo de serviço foram os mais afetados, principalmente na faixa de frequências altas. CONCLUSÃO: observou-se uma piora nos limiares auditivos em frequências agudas em relação ao tempo de serviço quando comparados os resultados entre a primeira e última avaliação de cada trabalhador.

Prevalence of hearing problems and associated factors in an agricultural company in southern Brazil

“…The noise in its different qualities may be harmful and one of the main occupational causes of hearing problems related to work, which were found in other studies and corroborate our results 1,5,14,17,22,24,26,27 .…”

“…The operational workers, assistencial and general service technicians, crane operators, miners, metal board handlers, mechanics, tractor operators, among others have higher chances of having hearing problems in relation to those who have administrative, teaching and research professions 3,18 , similar to the results of this research. In relation to time of work in the occupation, studies 1,5,19,24 show that as the time of work progresses, the workers have worse hearing function. This fact is understandable, as there is higher exposure to risk factors in relation to the shorter time of work in the function.…”

“…Globalization and the expansion of economies around the world result in great impact on the health of workers, for they impose higher productivity and loads of adverse occupational exposures to workers, especially to the hearing system. Hearing may be considered one of the most important senses, being mostly in charge of communication, and generates the psychosocial development of people 1 . Hearing conditions will be one of the ten most common health problems in the world up until 2030 2 .…”

Exposição ao ruído ocupacional pelos tripulantes de ambulâncias

“…In relation to noise effects in workers hearing health, research performed in Porto Alegre with 1.113 bus drivers verified a worsening in the hearing thresholds in acute frequencies related to length of service when it was compared the results of the first and the last sequential audiometry of each worker, which shows that the exposure to the noise during the working day can be harmful to the hearing system 9 . The values found in this research and in the studies described above are greater than allowed by NR 15, and therefore can bring damages to workers health, underling the importance of noise control measures.…”

“…Many studies in the literature approached the noise levels and the hearing findings in professional drivers [18][19][20] . One study realized in a city of the Fars Province, Iran, has investigated the hearing of 500 truck drivers by means of tonal threshold audiometry.…”