Race/Ethnicity Differences in the Prevalence of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in a Group of Metal Fabricating Workers

Abstract

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health rates noise-induced hearing loss as one of the top 10 work-related problems, involving at least 11 million workers. This retrospective study examines the differences between pure-tone hearing loss and race/ethnicity in 216 white and 70 non-white male metal fabricating workers. Significant variables upon univariate analysis found to be associated with race/ethnicity were mean years of employment and proportion of time worked without hearing protection. Among whites, the permanent threshold average for 1, 2, 3 and 5 kHz was 25.99 dB, compared with 17.71 dB in non-whites (P < 0.01). Backwards stepwise regression indicated that race/ethnicity, after being adjusted for years of employment, was the major-effect variable. The results of this study suggest that occupational noise exposure alone does not alone account for the racial hearing differences.

Noise and age-related hearing loss: A study of 40 123 gold miners in South Africa

“…This clinical research suggests that melanin, especially in the stria vasclaris of the cochlea, appears to act as a protective agent (Ishii & Talbott, 1998). Results of this study for participants of the underground noise group for the HFA346 showed significantly better hearing thresholds for black participants than for white participants across gender for medians and 95th percentiles.…”

“…As early as 1931 better hearing thresholds have been described in black noise-exposed subjects compared to white counterparts (Bunch & Raiford, 1931). Subsequent studies investigating the effect of race on the hearing of noise-exposed participants have found similarly that black persons have better hearing thresholds across the high frequencies (Ishii & Talbott, 1998;Henselman, et al, 1995).…”

“…Several reports on the effect of eye colour in susceptibility to NIHL (Carter, 1980;Ishii & Talbott, 1998;Carlin & McCroskey, 1980;Cunningham & Norris, 1982) indicate that individuals with blue eyes are more susceptible to noise-induced cochlear damage than are green or brown-eyed individuals which may be related to race since eye colour is highly dependent on race. This clinical research suggests that melanin, especially in the stria vasclaris of the cochlea, appears to act as a protective agent (Ishii & Talbott, 1998).…”

Association of Skin Color, Race/Ethnicity, and Hearing Loss Among Adults in the USA

“…Previous reports from large epidemiological studies (Cooper 1994;Helzner et al 2005;Agrawal et al 2008;Lin et al 2011a, b) and from smaller case-control studies of workers with occupational noise exposure (Jerger et al 1986;Ishii and Talbott 1998) have consistently demonstrated better hearing thresholds in black compared with white participants. A number of explanatory factors may be theoretically implicated to explain the observed association between race and hearing loss in these studies.…”

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Noise-induced Hearing Loss among Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinder Infusion Workers in Taiwan

“…However, our research results could only be applicable to males, not for females, because of the restriction of dominant gender among these field workers in this industry. In methodology, other than the limitation of small study population and cross-sectional study design, we were only allowed to access to one factory, instead of applying this project with a multi-center approach, and, also, in lack of blood samples for genetic factors, which had been implied by a study revealing race/ethnicity differences on NIHL prevalence 12) . Further exploration to genetic factors would be the next step for investigations in future, as what also suggested by Kurmis and Apps 2) .…”