Article Text
Abstract
Introduction Tinnitus leads to hearing loss, sleeping disorder, upset and affects normal life and job performance. It’s a vicious circle. It is worse among noise exposed workers. The investigation was conducted in railway transport equipment manufacturing industry aiming on the cause, treatment, prognosis and impact of hearing level of tinnitus. Expecting to present advice and promote occupational health.
Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1034 workers in face-to-face survey in Beijing in 2016. Substances included social statistics data, occupational history, past history and lifestyle. Data were analysed using SPSS21.0.
Result Tinnitus prevalence in the exposed group was 36.6%, higher than that in the control group (18.8%). In the exposed group tinnitus prevalence of workers without PPE was 41.7%, higher than that of workers with PPE (36.2%). Tinnitus prevalence of workers exposed to high dose was 54.0%, higher than that of low dose (34.7%). In both groups health concern rates were 83.7% and 91.1%, while poor consultation rates were 15.8% and 7.2%. No significant differences of prognosis were observed between two groups. In the exposed group hearing loss prevalence in workers with tinnitus was 67.9% higher than that of workers without tinnitus (49.8%).
Discussion For noise exposed workers, without PPE and directly exposed to noise were main causes of tinnitus. A dose-effect relationship was observed. No evidence approved noise exposing could deteriorate the prognosis of tinnitus. Misunderstanding for the principle and efficacy of tinnitus treatments resulted in low consultation rate. Understanding of masking and retraining therapy help patients adapt to tinnitus. Other measures are necessary such as healthy habits, avoiding overwork and ear heath care. There is cause-and-effect between tinnitus and hearing loss. It is recommended that employer should supervise strictly, provide double protection for employee exposed to high-dose-noise and restrict exposing time on the basis of national standards.