Development and validation of a screening questionnaire for noise-induced hearing loss.

BACKGROUND

An audiometric health surveillance programme can be perceived to be a relatively costly exercise and employers, especially in developing countries, might therefore be reluctant to undertake this. A questionnaire might be a cheaper alternative.

AIMS: To develop a questionnaire to help determine the prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in the vernacular (language) of a developing country and to validate it against an audiometric standard.

METHODS

A questionnaire was developed, translated and administered in a face-to-face interview. Otoscopic examination was followed by conventional pure-tone audiometry (at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz) for both ears of each respondent. The questionnaire responses were compared to the audiometric standard.

RESULTS

Two hundred and fifty workers from three companies (two printing and one woodworking) participated in this study. The sensitivity of the hearing loss questionnaire in detecting noise-induced hearing loss was 32%, while its specificity was 79%. There was an evidence to suggest good agreement (r = 0.523) between the total number of years worked in noisy jobs and NIHL (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The questionnaire developed in this study was found to have an unacceptably low sensitivity for noise-induced hearing loss and therefore cannot be a valid substitute for audiometry. Pure tone industrial audiometry needs to be used more widely than currently in developing countries.