Hearing Loss and Associated Factors Among Noise-Exposed Workers in Palm Oil Mills.

hearing loss noise exposed workers palm oil mill

Journal

Risk management and healthcare policy
ISSN: 1179-1594
Titre abrégé: Risk Manag Healthc Policy
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101566264

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2021
Historique:
received: 16 05 2021
accepted: 30 07 2021
entrez: 13 9 2021
pubmed: 14 9 2021
medline: 14 9 2021
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Almost 90% of the reported occupational diseases in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo were due to hearing loss. The manufacturing industry was the main contributor to this problem. This study aims to identify the prevalence and associated factors for hearing loss among workers in the palm oil manufacturing industry in Sabah. A cross-sectional study was done among 312 respondents from five palm oil mills in Sabah from January to April 2019. Audiometric tests, validated questionnaires and sound level meters were used. Chi-square test and independent 75% (n = 234) of the respondents were diagnosed with hearing loss. Most of them were male (96.2%) with a mean age of 44.4 (SD 9.8) years, mean duration of employment of 16.2 (SD 9.7) years and mean noise exposure of 96.1 (SD 4.8) dB(A). The significant factors associated with hearing loss were older age (p = 0.001), married (p = 0.001), blue-collar jobs (p = 0.003), smoking (p = 0.001), works with noisy machinery (p = 0.005), lower level of noise exposed (p = 0.015), longer duration of employment (p = 0.001), and longer overtime hours per week (p = 0.001). The prevalence of hearing loss among workers in the noise-exposed palm oil industries was high. Annual audiometry testing and job rotation from noise-exposed workstations were recommended. A smoking cessation program may help but reduction of noise from the source by engineering control is still the best method.

Identifiants

pubmed: 34512052
doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S319858
pii: 319858
pmc: PMC8420783
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

3653-3658

Informations de copyright

© 2021 Rasasoran et al.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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Auteurs

Daniel Raj Rasasoran (DR)

Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Azman Atil (A)

Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, Community and Family Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Mohammad Saffree Jeffree (MS)

Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, Community and Family Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Sahipudin Saupin (S)

Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, Community and Family Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Khamisah Awang Lukman (KA)

Centre for Occupational Safety and Health, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Classifications MeSH