Research Plus

Occupational hearing loss

A review of evidence on interventions to prevent occupational noise exposure and hearing loss has been published by the Cochrane Collaboration. Twenty-one studies met inclusion criteria, though the overall evidence quality was low. There was some evidence – again of low quality – that legislation can reduce workplace noise levels, while the evidence on the effectiveness on hearing protection and hearing loss prevention programmes was contradictory. One long-term study found elevated risks of hearing loss among army recruits due to exposure to impulse noise from shooting, despite the implementation of a hearing-loss prevention programme.

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009; 3: article number CD006396. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006396.pub2. http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD006396/OCCHEALTH_interventions-to-prevent-hearing-loss-caused-by-noise-at-work

Tags evidence based practice hearing noise

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2009 (vol. 06/2) pp40