Tinnitus Disability Compensation: Focusing on Tinnitus Disorder Caused by Military Noise in Veterans

Abstract

Military service personnel are constantly exposed to sudden, loud noises, and often show a higher auditory threshold than the general population, as well as tinnitus. Tinnitus in military personnel can occur alone, without any complaints of hearing impairment. When accompanied by hearing impairment, the low/mid-frequency hearing loss is not large, and the hearing threshold may appear to be increased in the high frequency range from 3-6 kHz. Therefore, by calculating the average hearing threshold and restricting disability assessments to cases of tinnitus with a moderate degree of hearing impairment of 50 dB, most veterans with tinnitus will be excluded from compensation. Not only are the diagnoses, evaluations, and auditory complications of tinnitus not considered, neither are the mental and psychological effects, nor the aspects of treatment and rehabilitation related to quality of life. This study aims to examine the characteristics of tinnitus disorder due to military noise. In addition, this study proposes that tinnitus should be classified as a public occupational disease in veterans, and discusses problems with the criteria for disability compensation and examinations.

Associations between earplug use and hearing loss in ROK military personnel

“…Therefore, the ROK Army, Navy/Marines and Air Force provide military personnel with earplugs as a way of personal hearing protection and provide education to prevent NIHL 8. However, NIHL continues to arise from ROK military personnel 9…”