Participant characteristics by hearing loss status (n=3828*)
| Characteristic | All participants (n=3828) | Not hearing loss (n=3372) | Hearing loss† (n=456) | p Value‡ |
| O*NET noise§ | 3.06 (±0.02) | 3.04 (±0.02) | 3.26 (±0.04) | <0.0001 |
| O*NET noise§ (weighted) | 3.15 (±0.02) | 3.12 (±0.02) | 3.39 (±0.05) | <0.0001 |
| Age (y) | 41.96 (±0.27) | 40.35 (±0.27) | 54.81 (±0.67) | <0.0001 |
| Body mass index (kg/m) | 28.04 (±0.15) | 28.05 (±0.15) | 28.02 (±0.36) | 0.9266 |
| Pure-tone average hearing thresholds¶ (dB) | 12.72 (±0.24) | 10.96 (±0.16) | 27.00 (±0.70) | <0.0001 |
| Noise notch** (%) | 17.6 | 16.8 | 23.7 | <0.0001 |
| Sex (male %) | 48.5 | 46.3 | 66.2 | <0.0001 |
| Race/ethnicity (%) | <0.0001 | |||
| Non-Hispanic white | 72.3 | 71.3 | 80.1 | |
| Non-Hispanic black | 10.7 | 11.5 | 4.9 | |
| Mexican American | 6.7 | 7.1 | 3.6 | |
| Other | 10.3 | 10.2 | 11.3 | |
| Ototoxic medication (current use %) | 15.9 | 14.8 | 24.4 | 0.0013 |
| Cumulative cigarette pack-years (%) | <0.0001 | |||
| Never | 53.6 | 55.3 | 40.6 | |
| <20 | 33.9 | 34.7 | 27.5 | |
| ≥20 | 12.4 | 10.0 | 31.9 | |
| Hypertension (%) | 23.1 | 20.6 | 43.2 | <0.0001 |
| Diabetes mellitus (%) | 4.3 | 3.4 | 11.5 | <0.0001 |
| Noise exposure at firearm (exposed %) | 7.4 | 6.6 | 13.2 | 0.0010 |
| Noise exposure at recreation (exposed %) | 25.9 | 25.4 | 29.6 | 0.1341 |
| Noise exposure at job†† (exposed %) | 33.0 | 31.5 | 45.4 | <0.0001 |
↵* Participants (n=3828) are the individuals having all interest variables in this study: hearing thresholds, hearing loss, noise, age, body mass index, sex, race/ethnicity, ototoxic medication, cumulative cigarette pack-years, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, firearm noise exposure and recreation noise exposure.
↵† Hearing loss was defined as pure-tone average at speech frequencies >25 dB.
↵‡ Survey t test (age adjusted) for continuous variables and survey (Rao–Scott) χ2 test for categorical variables were used.
↵§ O*NET noise score (1<Noise scale<5).
↵¶ Pure-tone average at speech frequencies at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz.
↵** Noise notch (hearing threshold at 3, 4 and/or 6 kHz is at least 10 dB greater than at 1 or 2 kHz and at least 10 dB greater than at 6 or 8 kHz).
↵†† Noise exposure at job was defined as ever exposure to loud noise at work for at least 3 months.
O*NET, Occupational Information Network.