Questions and Answers on Impacts that Solvents and Noise Have on Hearing

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Effects of occupation exposure to organic solvents and noise on hearing

Thais C Morata, Derek E. Dunn, Laura W. Kretschmer, Grace K. Lemasters, Robert W. Keith

Occupational Noise article questions:

Is this an original research article, or is this a review of the literature (critical review)?

This is an original article because the researchers collected data first-hand using questionnaires and interviews. After that, the researchers analyzed the data and interpreted. Therefore, this is primary research. On the other hand, a review of literature just summarizes the existing literature on a particular topic (Gratton & Jones, 2010).

What is the purpose of the study?

The study was conducted to examine how occupational exposure to solvents and noise affect hearing.

Describe the methods used for data collection

Who were the study subjects?

The study subjects were Brazilian workers working in printing and paint manufacturing industries.

What methods were used for data collection?

Data collection was primarily by means of a questionnaire that assessed medical and work history of the subjects. Interviews were also used.

How was data analyzed?

Data were analyzed using SAS statistical software. Data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analyses of variance, logistic regression, and one-way analysis of variance (Morata, Dunn, Kretschmer, Lemasters, & Keith, 1993).

What type of epidemiological study design was used in the article?

Experimental design was used in the study. The researchers randomly selected participants to two groups (exposed group and unexposed group) so as to study how differently occupational exposure to solvents and noise affected their hearing.

What were the findings of the study? Use bullet points to describe each finding.

The group exposed to toluene and noise had a higher prevalence of high-frequency hearing loss than other groups.

The group exposed to toluene and noise had higher frequencies of mild-frequency hearing loss than other groups.

All exposure groups have a higher risk of developing hearing loss.

What were the limitations of the study?

The first limitation has to do with the method of assessing how solvents affect hearing. The ideal method involves a comprehensive audiological test battery. Another limitation is the sample size. The sample size of 50 individuals was small to enable generalizations to be made.

Taking into account their findings, what do the authors suggest should be done in future studies?

In the present study, the researchers did not find serious hearing losses. Therefore, in future studies, the authors suggested that a different test (e.g. comprehensive audiological test battery) should be used to assess hearing loss as pure tone audiometry is not the most appropriate. Secondly, the authors suggested that future participants should consist of workers with long exposure times.

Given that the solvent-only group reported the highest adjusted relative risk of developing hearing loss, the researchers emphasized the urgent need to carry out research on how chemical exposure affect the hearing function of workers (Morata, Dunn, Kretschmer, Lemasters, & Keith, 1993).

What did the authors conclude?

The authors concluded that exposure to high levels of toluene and noise increased the chances of developing hearing loss in printers than in workers exposed to measured levels of noise. Secondly, compare to the noise-only group, participants exposed to solvent mixture reported higher chances of developing hearing loss. Lastly, findings from acoustic reflex decay test revealed that there might exist a central auditory pathway that is involved in hearing loss especially in printers (Morata, Dunn, Kretschmer, Lemasters, & Keith, 1993)

The authors discover that an interaction effect is present when Noise and Manganese occur simultaneously. Describe what the authors discovered regarding this effect, and name the type of interaction effect that was found (review chemical lecture).

Research conducted by Nikolov (1974) on the ototoxicity of Manganese found out that workers who were simultaneously exposed to both manganese and noise reported faster hearing loss than those exposed to manganese alone. This was a two-factor interaction since two independent variables (manganese and noise).

What are possible controls that could be used to reduce the occurrence of outcomes in the scenario(s) presented in the study?

Methods of control that can be used to eliminate any confounding variables in the study include matching, recruiting participants with the same level of confounding variables, and randomization (Rothman, Greenland, & Lash, 2008).

References

Gratton, C., & Jones, I. (2010). Research Methods for Sports Studies. Taylor & Francis.

Morata, T. C., Dunn, D. E., Kretschmer, L. W., Lemasters, G. K., & Keith, R. W. (1993). Effects of occupational exposure to organic solvents and noise on hearing. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 245-254.

Nikolov, Z. (1974). Hearing reduction caused by manganese and noise. JFORL. Journal francais d'oto-rhino-laryngologie; audiophonologie et chirurgie maxillo-faciale, 23(3), 231.

Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern Epidemiology. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.