Effect of Long-Term Exposure to Traffic Noise On Auditory Temporal Resolution of Traffic Police: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Background: Prolonged exposure to occupational noise can lead to various audiological and non-audiological effects. The present study is a preliminary investigation of the temporal resolution ability of traffic police officers who had a history of exposure to traffic noise for at least 5 years. Material and methods:The study focused on an experimental group of 20 traffic police officers and a control group of 20 agematched individuals without noise exposure. A gap detection test (GDT) and a test of modulation detection thresholds for sinusoidally amplitude modulated noise (TMTF) at 8 Hz, 20 Hz, and 60 Hz were administered to all the participants.Results: ANOVA was carried out to check for significant different in performance between the groups, which suggested a main effect of groups. A further t-test was done and no significant difference (p>0.05) between the groups in test performance was observed, suggesting that temporal resolution is not significantly affected in traffic police exposed to traffic noise. Conclusions:The present study findings may be attributed to various factors that control the effect of noise on humans. These factors are discussed. However, the population cannot be considered as free from noise-related harms since nonauditory effects of traffic noise, including sleep disturbances, annoyance, hypertension, and stress, have been reported in earlier studies. More research is needed to clarify the situation.