• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.2 s.46
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• pp.286-298
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• 1994

For the purpose of presenting the basic data for the establishment of control measures on the long-term noise exposed workers, this study was carried out on the relationship between personal noise exposed dose and hearing loss on the 67 male workers whose hearing threshold had exceeded 40 dB in 4,000 Hz, from 1990 to 1992. Conclusively, the level of hearing loss was significantly related to personal noise exposed dose in follow-up period. We considered that personal noise exposed dose which was measured by the personal noise dosemeter was more efficient rather than the noise level of workplace for the evaluating the long-term change of hearing acuity. And although in the case of not-diagnosed as noise induced hearing loss. it was suspected that the active control programs such as improvement of noisy environment or early transfer to proper workplace were needed on the workers who exposed with over 90 dB in personal noise exposed dose.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.134-140
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• 1990

The causes of occupational hearing loss are physical trauma. ototxic substances and noise. However, only noise induced hearing loss of workers has been reported in Korea as second cause of occupational disease. We report a case of progressive hearing loss in worker exposed to noise. carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide for about 13 years. Because of his hearing loss he had to move another position where no noise and no ototoxic substance is. Following audiometry showed that his hearing loss had worsen than before.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 2011

Human auditory acuity decreases naturally due to aging. But recently cases of impaired hearing at a young age are increasing greatly. The biggest reason for such an increase of population with impaired hearing is popularization of various kinds of portable multimedia appliances. Many studies on impaired hearing due to noises caused by the earphone and headphone are being made, but there are few studies on noise-impaired hearing caused directly by mobile phone communication. Based on a precedent inquiry, this study proposes a technique for preventing noise-impaired hearing applying to an active noise reduction technique onto bone conduction speaker. This technique is a method for reducing noises by antiphase oscillation through bone conduction speaker with ambient noises. If the proposed system is applied, the noise level that is actually introduced to audition decreases by more than 12 dB, and such a decreased amount of sound volume fundamentally prevents the factors of noise-caused hearing difficulty due to mobile phone communication. Sensibility test results showed that adequate communication was possible even in such a situation where communication volume was decreased like this.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2000

Recent progress in digital and VLSI technology has offered new possibility fer noticeable advance of hearing aids. Yet, environmental noise remains one of the major problems to hearing aid users. This paper describes results which speech recognition performance and speech discrimination performance was measured for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss, while listeners in speech-band noise. In addition, to ameliorate hearing-aided environments of hearing impaired listeners, environmental noise reduction using speech enhancement techniques are investigated as a front-end of conventional hearing aids. Speech enhancement techniques are implemented in a realtime system equipped with DSP board. The clinical test results suggest that the speech enhancement technique may work in synergy with gain functions fer the greater SNR improvement as the preprocessing algorithm of digital hearing aids.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2023

Objectives: To obtain audiologic basic data to diagnose the noise induced hearing loss of workers in fisheries. Methods: The charts of the referred fishermen with noise induced hearing loss from November 2022 to February 2023 at a general hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, auditory brainstem response test and auditory steady state response test were conducted. Results: All of them were men over 60 years of age, and the average duration of exposure to noise was 38.9 ± 10.8 years, and the average symptom duration of hearing loss was 13.4 ± 4.3 years. Although the hearing thresholds in the high frequencies were higher than thresholds in the low frequencies, the audiogram showed a down-sloping pattern without rebound at 8 kHz. 10.5% of the cases had thresholds greater than 75 dB in high frequencies, but 57.9% had thresholds greater than 40 dB in low frequencies. Other hearing test results of fishermen were similar to those of general noise-induced hearing loss. Conclusions: Although the fishermen were exposed to noise for a long time, they recognized hearing loss late. The hearing threshold in lower frequencies of the fishermen was higher than expected. Further studies will be needed to analyze the audiologic characteristics of noise-induced hearing loss of the fishermen after confirming noise exposure by conducting a survey on the working environment, such as the noise level and working hours.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.136-145
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic slovents and noise on hearing loss. We selected organic solvents exposed group of 32 cases, noise exposed group of 31 cases, both noise and solvent exposed group of 31 cases, and control group of 53 cases and studied the relation between exposure level of noise and organic solvents and degree of hearing loss. The results were as follows. The subjects under investigation were exposed to noise and organic solvents under threshold limit values and the amount of urinary hippuric acid excretion were also under biological exposure indices. In case of noise, both noise and organic solvents exposed group and noise exposed group were more exposed than organic solvents exposed group(p<0.05). When urinary hippuric acid excretion were concerned, both noise iud organic solvents exposed group and organic solvents exposed group showed higher values than noise exposed group(p<0.05). In comparison of mean auditory threshold values by frequency, on the air conduction test, both noise and organic solvents exposed group showed significantly higher hearing loss than noise exposed group in 500Hz of right ear, 500 and 2000Hz of left ear(p<0.05). Forty-three cases among 147 subjects were regarded as hearing loss group and average age(42.6years) of hearing loss group was higher than normal groups average age of 38.0 years. Urinary hippuric acid excretions of hearing loss group were significantly higher than normal group(p<0.05). Thirty-eight percent(12cases) of noise exposed group, 40.6 $\%$(13cases) of organic solvents exposed group, 51.6 $\%$(16cases) of both noise and organic solvents exposed group, and 3.8 $\%$(2cases) of unexposed group were regarded as hearing losers. Exposed groups showed higher incidence of hearing loss than unexposed group but there were no significant differences among the exposed groups. The variables showing significant correlation with hearing loss were age and the amount of hippuric acid in urinary excretion. When age were adjusted for the purpose of seeing the effects of hearing losses due to organic solvent, urinary excretion of hippuric acids was the only variable with significant correlation with hearing loss (p<0.05). When odds ratio to hearing loss between control and exposed groups was considered, noise exposed group showed 6.1 times (95 $\%$ CI: 3.3-8.7), organic solvents exposed group showed 7.4 times (95 $\%$ CI: 3.5-14.6) and both noise and organic solvents exposed group showed 17.2 times(95% CI: 5.6-31.8) higher values than unexposed group(p<0.01). Above results suggest that health screening test of hearing loss is also needed in organic solvents exposed workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 1995

Nowadays aviation noise significantly affects a number of people over the world. This paper is mainly focused on the effect of temporary and permanent hearing loss of cockpit crew, flight attendants, passengers, persons in communities exposed to aircraft overflight. Also this paper describes the human hearing mechanism and the processes of temporary and permanent hearing loss. The results of research are presented and the potential for hearing loss in aviation noise environments evaluated. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hearing protection criteria are also addressed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.332-345
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• 2023

Objectives: We examined the association of hearing with cardio-metabolic diseases, dyslipidemia, hypertension and diabetes mellitus according to the personal and occupational characteristics of workers exposed to noise. Methods: The subjects of the study were 237,028 workers who underwent 2, 3, and 4 kHz airway pure tone audiometry in 2015 and who underwent clinical tests to diagnose cardiovascular-metabolic diseases. Cardiovascular-metabolic diseases were defined using reference values for respective items including blood pressure (systolic/diastolic), fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. The airway pure tone hearing threshold of 2, 3, and 4 kHz, the average threshold of 2-3-4 kHz, and the hearing loss by the average threshold of the primary examination were distinguished. Results: Workers with cardiovascular-metabolic disease had significantly higher average hearing thresholds and higher rates of hearing loss. Logistic regression analysis, which adjusted for demographic variables of gender and age and occupational variables such as workplace size, industry, and type of work, and cardiovascular-metabolic disease as independent variables, showed that the odds ratio of hypertension to hearing loss in the mid-frequency was 1.239 (95% confidence interval: 1.118-1.374). For hypertension was 1.159 (1.107-1.214) and for diabetes it was 1.166 (1.104-1.230) for hearing loss in the high-frequency. Hearing loss measured by mean hearing was 1.178 (1.105-1.256) for hypertension and 1.181 (1.097-1.271) for diabetes. Conclusions: Cardiovascular-metabolic diseases in noise-exposed workers are associated with an increased risk of hearing loss and should be accompanied by bio-monitoring of cardiovascular-metabolic diseases in addition to auditory surveillance.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.146-151
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The relationship between hearing aid (HA) use and improvement in cognitive function is not fully known. This study aimed to determine whether HAs could recover temporal resolution or hearing in noise functions. Materials and Methods: We designed a prospective study with two groups: HA users and controls. Patients older than 45 years, with a pure tone average threshold of worse than 40 dB and a speech discrimination score better than 60% in both ears were eligible. Central auditory processing tests and hearing in noise tests (HINTs) were evaluated at the beginning of the study and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the use of a monaural HA in the HA group compared to the control group. The changes in the evaluation parameters were statistically analyzed using the linear mixed model. Results: A total of 26 participants (13 in the HA and 13 in the control group) were included in this study. The frequency (p<0.01) and duration test (p=0.02) scores showed significant improvements in the HA group after 1 year, while the HINT scores showed no significant change. Conclusions: After using an HA for one year, patients performed better on temporal resolution tests. No improvement was documented with regard to hearing in noise.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The speech-in-noise test is typically performed using an audiometer. The results of the digit-in-noise recognition (DIN) test may be influenced by the flat frequency response of free-field audiometry and frequency of the hearing aid fit based on fitting rationale. This study aims to investigate the DIN test in unaided and aided conditions. Subjects and Methods: Thirty four adults with moderate and severe sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) participated in the study. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for 50% of the DIN test was obtained in the following two conditions: 1) the unaided condition, performed using an audiometer in a free field; and 2) aided condition, performed using a hearing aid with an unvented individual earmold that was fitted based on NAL-NL2. Results: There was a statistically significant elevation in the mean SNR for the severe SNHL group in both test conditions when compared with that of the moderate SNHL group. In both groups, the SNR for the aided condition was significantly lower than that of the unaided condition. Conclusions: Speech recognition in hearing-impaired patients can be realized by fitting hearing aids based on evidence-based fitting rationale rather than by measuring it using free-field audiometry measurement that is utilized in a routine clinic setup.